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
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS