Media personality and Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong’s (趙少康) request to return to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been approved, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday, adding that Jaw would be appointed to the party’s Central Advisory Committee after the Lunar New Year holiday.
Jaw on Monday announced that he had submitted an application to restore his membership in the party, and that he did not rule out entering the race for KMT chairperson.
“Mr Jaw’s return to the KMT at this time will certainly help to strengthen the KMT’s power, social support and influence,” Chiang said in a statement.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“It is also deeply meaningful for the unity of pan-blue forces,” he said, adding that he welcomed the development.
Chiang said that the party had already planned to nominate additional members to its Central Advisory Committee to give the party guidance on policies and help direct it after the Lunar New Year holiday, which this year runs from Wednesday next week to Feb. 16.
Chiang would include Jaw in a list of appointees to be released after the holiday, he said, citing Jaw’s “extensive political experience and social influence.”
Chiang expressed the hope that Jaw’s appointment would boost the KMT’s supporter base, saying that he welcomes others to “return to the KMT family.”
The chairperson’s role is to “selflessly unite all supporting forces,” Chiang said, adding that he looks forward to more people with like views being attracted to join the party.
Jaw, who hosts several political talk shows, formerly served as a legislator, a Taipei city councilor and head of the Environmental Protection Administration.
Jaw cofounded the New Party, but retired from politics after losing the Taipei mayoral race to then-Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in 1994.
“It is always delightful when old friends come home,” Chiang told yesterday’s final meeting of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee before the Lunar New Year holiday.
“We must expand the KMT’s social support and not only unite all those who can be united, but also unite under a system to allow the KMT to operate sustainably” he said.
The party’s chairperson by-election last year required candidates to qualify as voters and to have been KMT members for at least one year, but the chair election rules do not require membership of more than one year, but only that candidates be members who have in the past served on the Central Advisory Committee or the Central Standing Committee.
Jaw told reporters in Taipei yesterday that if he does not qualify for this year’s KMT chairperson election, he was unlikely to run in the next chairperson election.
Additional reporting by CNA
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
LIKE-MINDED COUNTRIES: Despite the threats from outside, Taiwan and Lithuania thrived and developed their economies, former president Tsai Ing-wen said Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday thanked Lithuania for its support of Taiwan, saying that both countries are united as partners in defending democracy. Speaking at a reception organized by the Lithuania-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group welcoming her on her first visit to the Baltic state, Tsai said that while she was president from 2016 to last year, many Lithuanian “friends” visited Taiwan. “And I told myself I have to be here. I am very happy that I am here, a wonderful country and wonderful people,” Tsai said. Taiwan and Lithuania are in similar situations as both are neighbors to authoritarian countries, she
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to visit the UK during her ongoing European trip, which originally included only Lithuania and Denmark, her office said today. Tsai departed Taiwan for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark, marking her second visit to the continent since her two-term presidency ended in May last year. Her office issued a statement today saying that Tsai would also visit the UK "for a few days," during which she is to meet with UK politicians and Taiwanese professionals, and visit academic and research institutions. Following Tsai's stop in Denmark, she is to visit the
RSS