Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday dismissed speculation that some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators might quit the party if she wins the chairmanship by-election.
“Since a party chairperson is elected with the support of a majority of party members, it means that most members agree with that person’s ideas and have decided to let that person take the party helm,” Hung said in Taipei, when asked to comment on the reports.
Hung, who has been branded a champion of rapid unification due to her “one China, same interpretation” proposal, said the only explanation is that people who differ in their ways simply cannot take counsel with each other.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
Hung made the remarks after meeting with members of a newly formed alliance called the Structure Defenders” (制度者聯盟).
Established yesterday by scores of KMT representatives and Central Committee members, the alliance has seven aims: holding a debate on the KMT’s future policy direction, revitalizing the KMT’s young forces, establishing a bottom-up policymaking mechanism, cultivating young talent, ensuring transparency of party assets, strengthening ties with people at the grassroots level, as well as lowering thresholds for party chairman election and holding a televised debate and policy presentation among candidates.
Hung said she is willing to participate in a debate on the KMT’s future direction, but it is up to each and every party member to decide to whom they aspire to entrust their party.
As for continued concerns within the KMT about her cross-strait stance, Hung said she is the one to blame because she has failed to elucidate her policies.
“I will surely explain them in the future, but not now,” she said.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖), who won re-election in the Jan. 16 polls, yesterday threw his hat in the bid for party chairperson, saying his decision was prompted by three reasons.
“First, only a handful of the KMT’s middle-aged members managed to secure victory in the recent elections. As one of them, I cannot sit back and watch while the KMT faces its most difficult time,” Chen said.
The 58-year-old said he also wanted to help the KMT determine the causes of its landslide defeat and create a bottom-up democratic mechanism within the party.
Chen said he had consulted with many peers before making his decision, including former KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), but declined to reveal whether Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who is reportedly interested in vying for the position, was one of them.
Chen is the fifth KMT member to join the by-election, after Hung, former KMT vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), as well as Taipei City councilors Lee Hsin (李新) and Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平).
According to KMT headquarters’ schedules for the by-election, which is planned for March 26, applicants can pick up registration forms for the election today and tomorrow.
They also have to collect signatures from at least 3 percent of all party members between today and Feb. 21 before they can officially register their candidacy on Feb. 22.
See STORIES on page 8
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS