Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice chairman and chairmanship candidate Steve Chan (詹啟賢) yesterday called the KMT a “diverse and inclusive” party, saying that supposed infighting between its “local” and “nonlocal” camps would ruin the KMT.
In a radio interview, Chan was asked about local media labeling him and former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who is also running for the KMT chairmanship, as more “local” than KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), a waishengren (外省人) — people and their descendents who fled from China after the KMT’s defeat in the Chinese Civil War — who reportedly has the support of the party’s Huang Fu-hsing military veterans’ branch.
He challenged the categorization, calling into question the definition of “local.”
Photo: CNA
“Is being a native Taiwanese [as opposed to a waishengren] ‘local?’ Or voting in central or southern Taiwan? Or speaking Taiwanese [commonly known as Hoklo]?” Chan asked, contending that “local” and “nonlocal” are “generalized groupings” used by the media.
“We should refrain from using simplified classifications. What is crucial is candidates’ ideas for the party,” he said.
“Mine are that of the ‘middle way,’ which is to say that the KMT should, while keeping the Republic of China standpoint, ponder how the Taiwanese public’s interests could be best maintained,” Chan said, adding that the KMT’s “greatest value to Taiwan” is its diversity and tolerance.
He rejected the notion that being a waishengren inevitably means belonging to the “nonlocal” group, as being a “‘local,’ if Taiwan’s history is any reference, has been nonexclusive and open to various cultures from the very beginning.”
In its more than six decades in Taiwan, the KMT has always been inclusive and has incorporated different groups, “which runs contrary to the Democratic Progressive Party, whose ‘local’ is exclusive in character,” Chan said, adding that through his bid for the chairmanship he aims to provide another option to the party following that dichotomy.
“Dividing the party [by whether a member is ‘local’] is a path the KMT cannot take. How do they [other candidates] plan to unify the party after the election if this is how they plan to win the race?” he asked.
Chan called on new party members to “distinguish between personal connections and the interests of the whole,” amid reports of a sudden influx of members and applicants, of which many are “nominal members” or have backgrounds tied to organized crime.
As of last week, the party has accepted about 19,000 new members this year, in addition to more than 9,000 who renewed their memberships, increasing the total of effective members to more than 300,000, “a rate of increase that is quite substantial,” he said.
Whether new members have organized crime backgrounds should be investigated, but the more pressing question is that of their motivation, as they might have joined the party with a particular aim and will probably disappear after the election, he added.
“I cannot say that their applications were made to help a particular candidate win the election, but even if they were, no rules were broken,” Chan said.
“All I can do now is call for all members to be objective and rational, and ask them not to be bound by clientelism and bear in mind the larger picture for the party and Taiwan as a whole when voting in the chairperson election,” he added.
Separately yesterday, the KMT said it had turned down a membership application from Wan Shao-cheng (萬少丞), who allegedly played a role in the beating death of off-duty police detective Hsueh Chen-kuo (薛貞國) at a Taipei nightclub in September 2014.
The party said it would increase scrutiny in the vetting process and begin an investigation into who mediated Wan’s application.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and