The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) human resources management began seeing overwhelming changes within one month of Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) taking the helm of the party, seemingly challenging the decisions of his predecessor, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), party sources said.
Chu was elected chairman in January, after Ma stepped down following the party’s rout in the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections last year.
The sources said Chu’s personnel policy calls for the abolition of KMT headquarters’ political research center and information center, placing the units’ duties into the National Research Institute’s remit.
Institute director Jimmy Wu (吳肇銘), a trusted confidante of Chu, is to spearhead research and development, the sources said.
The institute previously encompassed the KMT’s department of youth affairs, research division and education and consultation division, the sources said. Now it is to include a statistics center, technology service center, general planning center and talent-fostering center, along with the department of youth affairs and the KMT’s youth group, they said.
Rumored changes to the Culture and Communications Committee would eliminate the “new media division” established during the 2012 presidential election campaign and the international affairs division that was set up after last year’s Sunflower movement, the sources said.
Affairs that were previously handled by the eliminated divisions are to be merged into the international information and events center, with a portion of the international division combined into the party’s Organizational Development Committee’s overseas department, which would be renamed the overseas and international affairs department, the sources said.
The international division has been without a boss since its former head, Charles Chen (陳以信), was appointed Presidential Office spokesman, the sources said.
The international information and events center will focus on helping the party understand international affairs and promote the KMT overseas, the sources said.
The sources said former minister of foreign affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) is likely to be named Chu’s adviser on international affairs.
SCENARIOS: A potential conflict with Beijing would not be similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and China would target energy and food supplies, a researcher said China is likely to continue using economic and cyberoperations against Taiwan to force it to capitulate without resorting to a military attack, Fox News reported yesterday, citing the outcome of a tabletop exercise. Washington-based think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) earlier this month held a tabletop exercise in Taipei focusing on Beijing’s use of economic and cybercoercion against Taiwan. The FDD mentioned an “anaconda strategy,” in which Beijing would likely use cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns followed by a blockade or other measures to strangulate Taiwan, rather than attempting an invasion, the report said. A large-scale cyberattack would be
HSINCHU CASES: Five people among 35 who were reported being sick were still in hospital after eating at a vendor in a market in Jhubei, the local health agency said Thirty-five people have sought medical treatment for acute symptoms after allegedly eating banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) from a vendor in Jhubei City (竹北), the Hsinchu County Public Health Bureau said yesterday. The bureau said that since Saturday, it has received several reports of suspected food poisoning from hospitals. The vendor has been ordered to temporarily suspend its business, it said, adding that tests were being conducted to determine whether the people had food poisoning, with results expected in about two weeks. A preliminary investigation showed that the people who sought treatment had recently eaten banh mi at a vendor at a retail market
GOOD MODEL: Speaking at his book launch, Law said that Taiwan is the most democratic Chinese-speaking country, which is why Hong Kongers relocated here China has suffocated Hong Kong’s civil society and its next target could be Taiwan, Nathan Law (羅冠聰), cofounder of the disbanded pro-democracy Hong Kong political party Demosisto, said in Taipei yesterday. Law made the remarks at a launch in Taipei for his book When the Wind Blows — the Struggles for Freedom of Hong Kong (時代推著我們前行:羅冠聰的香港備忘錄). Law has been living in the UK since he fled Hong Kong in 2020, and the book is about his fighting for the cause of freedom in the area. He was granted political asylum in 2021. “Fleeing is a long and distressing process, but it also
IMITATING OTHERS? Tsai Ing-wen’s office said the former president rents a commercial unit for her personal office and had never used election funds to purchase real estate Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday confirmed that he used about NT$43 million (US$1.35 million) from his presidential election subsidy to purchase an office unit near the Legislative Yuan in May. Ko made the remarks after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) earlier in the day told a news conference that she received a tip-off that the TPP chairman had purchased a 48.76 ping (161.2m2) office unit at Jinan Building (濟南大樓), a commercial building in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正). Lin said that Ko purchased the unit on May 10, paying about NT$43 million in cash,