Media personality and Broadcasting Corp of China (中廣) chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) yesterday said he would seek the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) nomination to run in the 2024 presidential election.
Jaw, a former lawmaker who in 1993 left the KMT with several other members to form the New Party, on Monday last week said that he had submitted a request to restore his KMT membership, and that he would not rule out entering this year’s race for KMT chairperson.
Jaw said he was also open to making a bid for city mayor or county commissioner in next year’s local elections, or appearing on the ticket in the 2024 presidential election.
Photo: CNA
He said that former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who was the KMT presidential candidate in last year’s election, at a meeting in September last year urged him to run for KMT chairman.
Asked by reporters in Taipei whether the early announcement of his interest in running in the KMT presidential primary was aimed at blocking a possible bid by former KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), Jaw said: “No one can block anyone... [Chu] will still run if he wants to.”
Chu, a former New Taipei City mayor, represented the KMT in the 2016 presidential election, which he lost to then-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
He is also widely seen as a potential candidate for KMT chairman.
Asked whether he had discussed his decision with former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT, Jaw said: “I did not discuss it with anyone.”
Jaw said he felt the Tsai administration was not doing a good job.
“I think I have a chance, and I think I have a lot of ideas to make Taiwan better, to make Taiwan greater,” he said.
Asked whether he would consider being a vice presidential candidate, Jaw said: “Probably not.”
KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) in a statement on Wednesday last week said that Jaw’s request to return to the KMT had been approved.
Jaw would be appointed to the KMT’s Central Advisory Committee after the Lunar New Year holiday, Chiang said.
According to KMT regulations, a party member must have served in the Central Advisory Committee or Central Standing Committee to run in the chairperson election.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
RSS