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 actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
RSS