Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) only offered his support for the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally on Saturday in solidarity with its embattled former chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), but never said he would attend, a KMT source said today.
TPP Acting Chairman and Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) on Friday last week announced that the party would gather on Taipei’s Liberty Square (自由廣場) on Saturday in solidarity with Ko, who is facing charges of corruption and embezzlement involving a development project and campaign finance law violations.
Posting on social media after the announcement, Chu said that he would “give his full support” to the protest.
Photo: Taipei Times
The next day, KMT think tank deputy director Ling Tao (凌濤) said that Chu’s comments were equivalent to calling on all party members to attend the rally.
In response to media reports yesterday that Chu had “changed his mind” about attending, a party source said that the KMT chairman had only lent his support to the rally, but never said whether he or members of his party were planning to attend.
Saying that he “changed his mind” is a misunderstanding, the source said, adding that the party leadership’s position of merely lending support to the TPP has not changed.
Asked directly whether Chu would attend on Saturday, the source said: “My understanding is that he will not attend.”
The party source said that Ling was correct in that Chu’s comments were meant to encourage attendance, but the party itself is not formally mobilizing its members.
People are encouraged to attend, but as individuals, not as representatives of the KMT, they added.
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