With the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) scheduled to hold its chairperson by-election tomorrow, party hard-liners expressed concern over select candidates’ call to adjust the party’s cross-strait policy following its massive defeat in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections.
Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), who represents the party’s younger generation, are deliberately avoiding or obfuscating the issue about cross-strait relations, former KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said in a press release yesterday.
The party’s core values — to uphold the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution and embrace the spirit of the Three Principles of the People (三民主義 ) — must not change, she said.
Hung said that her addition of the clause — “Based on the ROC Constitution and furthering the ‘1992 consensus,’ [the KMT is] to actively explore the possibility of terminating hostile relations across the Taiwan Strait by signing a peace accord” — in 2016, when she was chairwoman, is what people across the Strait need.
The so-called “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中) urged party members not to vote in the by-election, saying that Hau’s and Chiang’s comments on cross-strait relations seem to favor severing ties with China.
The core of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) cross-strait policy is separation from China, which increases the risk of conflict and possibly a resumption of war, Chang said.
The KMT should stress that it is different from the DPP and that its cross-strait policy could bring about a peaceful resolution, he said.
Hau and Chiang are echoing the DPP’s statements and, in so doing, causing the KMT — and Taiwan — to lose whatever advantage it has in cross-strait relations, he said.
Hau said that his core values of defending the ROC and staunchly resisting Taiwanese independence are very clear, adding that they are the KMT’s core values, too.
He pledged that if elected, he would handle cross-strait issues according to such ideals.
Chiang said that telling members not to vote is stifling democracy within the party and preventing changes that the party needs, which in the end would hurt the party more than the candidates.
He urged members to turn out to vote and help the party embrace change.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked