Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) heavyweights and members of the party’s Central Standing Committee have warned that the party’s southern support base has crashed through the floor and that the party could be on the verge of fragmenting.
According to a source within the KMT, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has grown even more distant from party bigwigs since the presidential election in January and has had little, if any, interaction with them.
One example is former KMT chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄), who met Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in March. Despite Wu’s conveyance of the “one country, two areas” (一國兩區) rhetoric to Hu, Ma’s cold treatment of Wu in later months has been witnessed by several party members, the source said.
Wu’s emphasis at the press conference after the meeting that the message he had conveyed to Hu had Ma’s full approval and that he was “doing as I was asked to do” seemed to highlight that Wu was conveying a message from Ma, the source said.
“It’s very chilling to see those higher up in the party choosing people outside the party over established party systems,” the source said, quoting the political heavyweights, adding that they had also stated “in private to me a few days ago that the atmosphere within the party has changed and that the ‘cohesion and unity’ of the party was gone.”
Meanwhile, the source also said that some of the party’s Central Standing Committee members worried about the extra damage the ongoing bribery case of former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) would inflict on the party.
Lin was dismissed from the party after he was accused of taking a NT$63 million (US$2.15 million) bribe from Ti Yung Co-owner Chen Chi-hsiang (陳啟祥) to facilitate a slag and waste contract between Ti Yung and China Steel Corp.
In private statements, the source said, committee members had told them that the Lin scandal had seriously undermined the image of the KMT and if party officials were to become embroiled in another case, especially ones that are high up in the party hierarchy, “the results would be unimaginable.”
As Lin’s hometown is in southern Taiwan, committee members who had just returned from visiting the south said that the stance of citizens there in relation to the KMT was “staggeringly” negative, adding that if an adjective was needed to describe the party situation in the south, it would be “disastrous.”
Ma does not seem to understand the mindset of the general public and people are not listening to his continued calls against corruption, the source said.
“We’re going to lose control of things” if the issue is not taken care of, especially when distrust of Ma is common and pervasive, the source said, quoting the committee members.
The entire Cabinet, including Ma, have never encountered such a situation before and their handling of the Lin case shows that “they are panicking,” the source said, adding that the administration should change their thought patterns or there would be more serious issues to come.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS