Some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers appear hesitant about their campaigns being tied to that of KMT presidential hopeful Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) because they are uncertain that Hung would boost their popularity.
After Hung was endorsed by the KMT’s Central Standing Committee on Wednesday, during the nomination process KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Hung had discussed campaign strategy and proposed a joint office to run a combined presidential and legislative campaign for January’s elections.
The idea was not warmly received by some KMT lawmakers, who have doubts about the “effect of hens boosting chickens,” a term applied to politics meaning that a candidate of a higher-ranking election (hen) is so popular that they can boost the chances of winning for lower-level election candidates (chickens).
Hung’s nomination as presidential candidate is expected to be approved by the party’s national congress on July 19.
Although the “repercussions” Hung’s nomination is likely to have on the party’s legislative candidate remains to be seen, KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), a seven-term lawmaker in New Taipei City, said he has feeling he will have to wage the campaign “on my own” because the party has yet to get back on its feet after its drubbing in the nine-in-one elections last year.
KMT Legislator Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) said she has seen a rise in support for Hung in her constituency in Chunghua County, but it is swing voters that Hung must actively seek out and that would require her to “shake up her campaign team to ramp up its diversity.”
KMT Legislator Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟), who hails from Taichung, said his colleagues in central and southern Taiwan do have worries that Hung could be “far from a boost” to their campaigns.
The crux lies in whether Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), a leading figure of the party’s localization factions, would be willing to dedicate himself to arousing public passion for the KMT, especially in terms of his connections, Liao said.
To alleviate the concerns that Hung’s nomination would make the party’s aspirants for the legislative election face an uphill battle, the KMT is considering putting forward more party heavyweights in the combined elections so that they can play the role of “hens.”
KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), the former Taipei mayor, has said he has not ruled out the possibility of running in a legislative district in southern Taiwan to “elevate the morale of the party,” while the KMT is trying to draft Vice Chairperson Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) to run for a legislative seat in Chiayi City, where she served as mayor from 2005 to last year.
The structure of any joint office for the presidential and legislative election campaigns is still under discussion, but it would serve as a platform through which Hung and the legislative candidates could coordinate their campaign tactics and activities, KMT sources said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
RSS