Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) yesterday said he would not be running for chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
He had initially expressed an interest in seeking the position with the intention of “saving the party and the country,” said Jaw, who rejoined the KMT in February.
However, there was no need for the KMT Central Standing Committee to revise a requirement in the party’s election regulations stipulating that a chairperson candidate must have been a party member for at least one year, he said.
Photo: CNA
He would not be running for KMT chairperson regardless of whether the committee modifies the rules of the chairperson election, which is expected to take place in July, “because there is more than one way to serve the country,” he said.
Jaw, a former lawmaker, said he had been a member of the KMT for more than two decades before leaving it in 1993 to cofound the New Party.
After losing the Taipei mayoral race to then-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in 1994, Jaw retired from politics and became a media personality who now hosts several political talk shows on radio, television and the Internet.
Jaw announced his decision at a meeting of the KMT Central Standing Committee to which he had been invited.
In his speech to the committee, titled “Peace, Endeavor, Save Taiwan,” he outlined his criticisms of the KMT and the DPP, and cited the crises facing the nation as grounds for his return to politics.
He listed the closure last year of the CTi News channel and the appointment of Wu Ming-hung (吳明鴻), a cousin-in-law of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as head of the Supreme Administrative Court, as examples of what he referred to as the DPP’s “authoritarian” ways.
He also accused the DPP of corruption and said that its “anti-China” position had “pushed Taiwan into a very dangerous position.”
No one, including the KMT, is keeping the DPP’s power in check, Jaw said, accusing the DPP of failing to take care of disadvantaged groups, respect democracy or insist on peace.
He believed the nation’s economy was overly dependent on China, while its military was overly dependent on the US, he added.
Despite the DPP “doing so badly,” the KMT continues to lose elections in part because it is “too old and too conservative,” and “too far away from the people,” Jaw said.
The KMT “is already in opposition, [but] still thinks it is in power,” he said.
He described the KMT as being simultaneously afraid of the DPP and the Chinese Communist Party, and afraid of loudly stating its own position and contributions to the nation.
Even if the KMT is united, it might not necessarily win, Jaw said, but added that without unity within the party, it was certain to lose.
He called for a “thorough reform” of the KMT.
In his recommendations to the committee, he said it would be best if being the chairperson was the KMT chairperson’s sole duty when the party is in opposition.
However, the president should be allowed to double as KMT chairperson when the party is in power, he said.
He also reiterated a previous suggestion that the KMT reduce the number of people on its Central Standing Committee.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS