Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) yesterday confirmed the party plans for legislators-at-large to set up offices in southern Taiwan, a traditionally a pan-green stronghold.
However, the details have to be run by new KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) before anything would be implemented, Lin said.
Hung’s predecessor, Eric Chu (朱立倫), had planned to have some of the legislators-at-large be “backup candidates” for future county commissioner and mayoral elections.
Had Chu’s plan been implemented, the KMT could have developed a comparatively stronger presence in southern Taiwan, given former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and former lawmaker Huang Chao-shun’s (黃昭順) deep connections with Kaohsiung, former Taoyuan county commissioner John Wu’s (吳志揚) ties to Taoyuan, and former lawmakers Chang Li-shan’s (張麗善) and Hsu Chen-wei’s (徐榛蔚) strengths in Yunlin County and Hualien County respectively.
Chu planned for the legislators-at-large to “adopt” other constituencies in the south to help them carve out more prominent roles in local life, adding that the original plan was for Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) to “adopt” Pingtung County, while Chen Yi-min (陳宜民) and Hsu Yu-jen (許毓仁) would be in Kaohsiung.
Lin Li-chan (林麗蟬) would have been asked to establish a presence in Changhua County, Tseng Ming-tsung (曾銘宗) in Chiayi and Wang Yu-min (王育敏) in Chiayi County, party sources said.
The sources said that Lin Li-chan has opened an office in Changhua and Yuanlin Township (員林) to help the party extend its presence in southern Changhua County, while Chen has set up an office in Kaohsiung’s Fengshan District (鳳山).
Hsu said he has been told of “relevant plans,” but they are not finalized, adding that the party has only asked him to open an office in the area, but said nothing about helping in local elections.
Tseng said he has not received any word from the party about establishing an office in other counties.
Ko said she was asked to start an office and lay the groundwork to further the party’s presence in her hometown of Pingtung by former KMT secretary-general Li Shu-chuan (李四川).
However, she said that Pingtung County and Chiayi would be more difficult.
Ko said she was scheduled to meet with Hung, Hsu and Tseng this week, adding that KMT legislators would follow the party’s directives.
Other KMT members said Chu’s idea of having legislators seen as “backup candidates” for commissioners and mayors step down from the Legislative Yuan to run in the 2018 elections might not be followed to the letter.
Given the KMT’s landslide loss in January’s presidential and legislative elections, Hung might have difference ideas, the sources said.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS