When King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) last month became Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) secretary-general, he spoke of “making the KMT a better party so that it will allow the public to embrace it.” President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), meanwhile, who doubles as KMT chairman, said King would be the party’s “chief executive officer” in charge of implementing his agenda for party reform.
Just one month into the job, however, it has become clear that King’s clout extends beyond the KMT’s internal affairs. The KMT secretary-general has palpable influence over the executive and legislative arms of government.
Hours after King placed a call to Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) on Thursday to express concern over the EPA’s plan to fine people who smoke while walking or riding on scooters, the EPA said it was rethinking the proposal.
Then, the Executive Yuan yielded to King’s KMT-proposed version of an amendment to the Local Government Act (地方制度法) even after legislators across party lines reached an initial consensus supporting the Executive Yuan’s version.
With the government still licking its wounds from the US beef fiasco, which pounded public confidence in Ma’s team, King’s actions are not helping re-establish the president’s image and authority.
King dismissed critics who said he was meddling with EPA policy, arguing that he simply conveyed public opinion to the government. “The party and government agencies should work together to address public complaints,” he said.
While few would disagree that politicians and government agencies have a responsibility to listen to public opinion, there are proper steps to convey public concerns that don’t undermine the Executive Yuan’s authority.
But this isn’t just about King. Shen’s backpedaling was unacceptable. Instead, he should have consulted Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and waited for his directive after taking up the matter at the weekly Cabinet meeting.
Wu, meanwhile, who had been sidestepped, then turned around and supported King, perhaps out of a feeling of obligation, saying that what King did was “normal.”
King’s action sets a bad precedent by showing disregard for the chain of command. The next time the executive branch is mulling a policy or drafting a bill, the ministers will look not only to the premier but also to King for a final nod.
The problem with meddling of this kind is that as a party official rather than a government official, King is not accountable to the public. He is not obligated to report to the legislature, nor is he subject to scrutiny by government agencies.
Some may wonder why King has such clout. The answer lies in his full endorsement by the president, which has sent a signal to the government and party alike.
If Ma has such confidence in King and wants him to have considerable and direct influence on government policy, he should make him premier. In this scenario, King would be subject to legislative scrutiny — and public assessment of his competence.
The image was oddly quiet. No speeches, no flags, no dramatic announcements — just a Chinese cargo ship cutting through arctic ice and arriving in Britain in October. The Istanbul Bridge completed a journey that once existed only in theory, shaving weeks off traditional shipping routes. On paper, it was a story about efficiency. In strategic terms, it was about timing. Much like politics, arriving early matters. Especially when the route, the rules and the traffic are still undefined. For years, global politics has trained us to watch the loud moments: warships in the Taiwan Strait, sanctions announced at news conferences, leaders trading
The saga of Sarah Dzafce, the disgraced former Miss Finland, is far more significant than a mere beauty pageant controversy. It serves as a potent and painful contemporary lesson in global cultural ethics and the absolute necessity of racial respect. Her public career was instantly pulverized not by a lapse in judgement, but by a deliberate act of racial hostility, the flames of which swiftly encircled the globe. The offensive action was simple, yet profoundly provocative: a 15-second video in which Dzafce performed the infamous “slanted eyes” gesture — a crude, historically loaded caricature of East Asian features used in Western
Is a new foreign partner for Taiwan emerging in the Middle East? Last week, Taiwanese media reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, a country with whom Taiwan has long shared unofficial relations but which has approached those relations cautiously. In the wake of China’s implicit but clear support for Hamas and Iran in the wake of the October 2023 assault on Israel, Jerusalem’s calculus may be changing. Both small countries facing literal existential threats, Israel and Taiwan have much to gain from closer ties. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, President William
A stabbing attack inside and near two busy Taipei MRT stations on Friday evening shocked the nation and made headlines in many foreign and local news media, as such indiscriminate attacks are rare in Taiwan. Four people died, including the 27-year-old suspect, and 11 people sustained injuries. At Taipei Main Station, the suspect threw smoke grenades near two exits and fatally stabbed one person who tried to stop him. He later made his way to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he threw more smoke grenades and fatally stabbed a person on a scooter by the roadside.
RSS