Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said that he would use party disciplinary mechanisms to punish “saboteurs” within the KMT who called for replacing New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) as its presidential candidate.
Public polls released in the past few days had shown a dip in support for Hou.
“Our party has some dissenting voices. The most important thing right now is to unify and consolidate our efforts. If we cannot do that, then it will make Democratic Progressive Party very happy,” Chu said at KMT youth event in Kaohsiung.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“Please do not get influenced by these saboteurs, as we know many party members are anxious right now,” he said. “We must unify with all our efforts to achieve our party’s aims.”
“In the KMT we have strict party discipline. At this stage we are calling for unity and better communication, but if they [people critical within the party] are harming our presidential and legislative candidates, then they will be punished according to party discipline measures,” he added.
NOMINATION
Some KMT members have said that the nomination of Hou on May 17 had been an “opaque process,” which Chu called rumors, and not worthy of a response.
“All KMT members must give their strong support and back up our party’s presidential and legislative candidates, and must not create internal discord or shoot arrows from behind against our own candidates,” he said.
In other developments, sources yesterday said that Hou has made plans to visit Japan late next month, when he would meet with former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso, who is vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party, and hold talks with other Japanese lawmakers.
Hou is to focus on Japan’s public safety protocols and social infrastructure projects on the visit, the sources said.
His meeting with Aso would most likely focus on foreign affairs and economic issues, particularly on how to deepen ties between Taiwan and Japan, they said.
Additional reporting by Hsu Chuo-hsun
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS