Legislator-elect Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁), who was re-elected to represent Hualien County in the Jan. 13 legislative elections, is to be the new Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip in the Legislative Yuan after KMT legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) withdrew from the race for the position.
The KMT, which won 52 seats in the 113-seat legislature in the elections, is scheduled to elect a chief convener and secretary-general for its new legislative caucus today.
Lai, a senior lawmaker who has represented Taipei’s eighth electoral district in the Legislative Yuan since 2005, registered to run for the KMT caucus’ top whip position, but wrote on social media on Sunday that he would withdraw from the race against Fu, his only rival.
Photo: CNA
He said he learned that some members of the new KMT caucus felt tormented over the election and were hoping that a new convener could be chosen through coordinated efforts so that “a painful vote would be avoided.”
As a potential vote could take away from the caucus’ need to focus on its monitoring of the incoming presidential administration of William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Lai Shyh-bao said that nothing was more important than the internal unity of the party, which he called a “very vulnerable majority” in the new legislature.
Lai Shyh-bao’s decision means that Fu would assume the position as the KMT’s top caucus whip in the new legislature, to be inaugurated on Thursday.
Photo: CNA
In addition, Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷) is to serve as secretary-general of the KMT’s new caucus and Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) is to be his deputy, after Lin decided not to run for the position of secretary-general.
Meanwhile, sources said that the DPP caucus yesterday decided on Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) as its caucus whip, Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) as its chief executive and Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) as its secretary-general.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Passengers aboard Korean Airlines Flight KE189 arrived in Taichung safely yesterday after a scare the previous day encountering uncontrolled decompression, which injured 13 passengers. Flight KE189 departed from Incheon at 4:45pm on Saturday bound for Taichung with 125 passengers on board. The flight was above Jeju Island when a fault in the pressurization system occurred 50 minutes after takeoff. Online flight tracker Flightradar24’s data show that the plane dropped more than 8,000 meters within 15 minutes, before it returned and landed back at Incheon Airport at 19:38pm. Thirteen passengers on board had a headache or earache due to the incident and were hospitalized. A different
China might seek to isolate Taiwan and weaken its economy through a “quarantine,” which would make it difficult for the US to respond and force Taipei to negotiate on unification, CNN reported on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “increasingly bellicose actions” toward Taiwan have heightened concerns that Beijing would use its military against Taiwan, it said, citing a report by think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, China might choose to initiate a quarantine, rather than a military invasion of Taiwan, to avoid US involvement, it said. “A quarantine [is] a law enforcement-led operation to control
A new message broadcast on the Taipei MRT’s Wenhu (Brown) Line urging passengers to yield their seats to those in need, not necessarily elderly people, would be extended to other MRT lines and public transportation in the capital, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday. Chiang was responding to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of a news conference at Taipei City Hall promoting healthy walking. Several disputes over priority seats on public transportation have recently been reported, sparking debate about who qualifies to sit in them, as most of the cases involved elderly people asking young people to give up their