The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Evaluation and Discipline Committee last night approved a suggestion by the party’s Integrity Committee to immediately suspend the party membership of Taitung County Commissioner Kuang Li-chen (鄺麗貞).
Juan Kang-meng (阮剛猛), head of the KMT’s Evaluation and Discipline Committee, said the evaluation committee would now discuss how long Kuang’s membership should be suspended for.
The Integrity Committee suggested last night that the KMT should suspend Kuang’s membership after over three hours of discussions.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
“[Kuang’s incident] has attracted a lot of attention in society and seriously damaged the KMT’s reputation ... The committee suggested that Kuang’s membership should be suspended,” Chang told reporters last night after the meeting at the KMT headquarters.
Kuang, who drew widespread criticism for failing to cancel a 13-day trip to Europe ahead of Typhoon Fung-wong, bowed again in apology to her constituents after facing the KMT Integrity Committee yesterday over the nature of her trip.
Seeking to gain a better understanding about Kuang’s trip, the Integrity Committee moved its regular meeting from Aug. 19 to yesterday.
Kuang arrived at KMT headquarters at about 6:30pm, but remained tight-lipped as she was swamped by reporters.
After spending more than two hours explaining her trip to the committee, Kuang bowed twice to apologize and asked that the public give her another chance during the remainder of her term.
“I apologize again for causing negative reactions and damaging the KMT’s reputation ... I will cooperate 100 percent with the investigations,” she said last night at KMT headquarters.
“I hope the public will give me a second chance. I will spare no effort to finish my term and fight for the best interests of Taitung,” she said.
Kuang was named an interested party on Tuesday after being questioned by Taitung prosecutors amid accusations that she had wasted more than NT$10 million (US$325,000) in public funds on eight overseas trips since she assumed her position in 2006.
Kuang denied that taking 10 township heads on the 13-day European tour was designed to secure their support in next year’s local government elections.
The Taitung County Government’s budget for government staffer inspection trips abroad had been decreasing since she assumed office, Kuang said.
Earlier yesterday, Kuang surprised many by showing up at the county government office after Taitung County Government Secretary-General Wu You-chin (吳有進) had earlier told reporters that the commissioner had called in to ask for leave.
Kuang declined to answer questions from the media as she headed for her office.
She later held an extraordinary meeting with senior officials at the county government before flying to Taipei.
KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) declined to comment on the controversy surrounding Kuang yesterday when approached by reporters.
However, Wu said earlier this week that Kuang should cancel her trip to the Beijing Olympics and other planned trips.
“The most important thing is how the public feels ... As far as I know, she will not leave the country again before the end of the year,” he said.
Asked if she was worried about her chances of being re-elected next year, Kuang said she fully respected the choice of Taitung residents.
The KMT’s Integrity Committee has no authority to investigate possible abuses of power or corruption.
Juan said yesterday that the Integrity Committee was an independent body formed to look into the behavior of members.
According to KMT party regulations, a party member is subject to disciplinary action from the party if convicted of a crime.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
TECH SECTOR: Nvidia Corp also announced its intent to build an overseas headquarters in Taiwan, with Taipei and New Taipei City each attempting to woo the US chipmaker The US-based Super Micro Computer Inc and Taiwan’s Guo Rui on Wednesday announced a joint venture to build a computation center powered only by renewable energy. After meeting with Supermicro founder Charles Liang (梁見後) and Guo Rui chairman Lin Po-wen (林博文), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) instructed a cross-ministry panel to be established to help promote the government’s green energy policies and facilitate efforts to obtain land for the generation of green power, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said. Cho thanked Liang for his company’s support of the government’s 2019 Action Plan for Welcoming Overseas Taiwanese Businesses to Return to Invest in
The unification of China and Taiwan is “non-negotiable,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said yesterday in response to an article by a Chinese academic suggesting that Beijing would not set a timetable for the annexation of Taiwan in the next four years. Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published last week in Foreign Affairs that China’s focus for the next four years would be revitalizing the economy, not preparing a timetable to invade Taiwan. The TAO said that was only the personal opinion of an academic. The Chinese Communist Party has since 1949 committed
China is likely to focus on its economy over the next four years and not set a timetable for attempting to annex Taiwan, a researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday. In the article titled “Why China isn’t scared of Trump: US-Chinese tensions may rise, but his isolationism will help Beijing,” Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) wrote that the US and China are unlikely to go to war over Taiwan in the next four years under US president-elect Donald Trump. While economic and military tensions between the US and China would
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said Thursday it had caught 124 people attempting to use forged documents to visit Taiwan since allowing Chinese nationals based overseas to apply for entry permits in September last year. The NIA’s revelation comes after unnamed immigration officials and travel agency workers cited in a CNA report Wednesday said that Chinese entry permit applicants had submitted forged documents showing they were students in Malaysia. After closing its borders to Chinese tourists on Jan. 22, 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan began allowing those living or studying outside of China to enter from a third country on Sept.
RSS