The Cross-Strait Taiwanese Business People Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Fan Club celebrated its establishment in Taipei yesterday. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who was present at the event as KMT chairman, called on Taiwanese businesspeople working in China to support the KMT, which he said is “on the right side of history.”
Top echelons from the party and KMT candidates attended the celebration, organized by Taiwanese working in China to rally votes and encourage businesspeople to return to participate in the Nov. 29 9-in-1 elections.
KMT vice-chairpersons Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) and Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), KMT Central Review Committee Chairmen Lin Join-sane (林中森) and Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) — who are respectively the current Straits Exchange Foundation chairman and the former chairman — KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) were present at the event alongside business representatives from the nation’s 22 cities and counties.
Photo: CNA
The founding of a KMT fan club among Taiwanese businesspeople working in China for local elections rather than a national election has no precedent.
The reason might have been hinted at by Ma’s speech at the event, in which he said that in some regions: “We are having a close [election] fight.”
“The KMT is on the right side of history and on the side consistent with the needs of the people,” Ma said, highlighting that the party won the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections with the support of Taiwanese businesspeople and that they could again play a key role this year.
Ma reiterated his view that the suspicion that former Mainland Affairs Council deputy minister Chang Hsien-yao’s (張顯耀) leaked state secrets was only “a small ripple in the strong wave of cross-strait developments.”
Ma also championed his efforts in improving cross-strait relations, emphasizing that the student-led Sunflower movement might have hindered the progress of the cross-strait service trade agreement, but did not prevent China’s Taiwan Affairs Office director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) from visiting Taiwan.
Berating opposition parties for having what he termed “knee-jerk protests” whenever encountering China, Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland chairman Kuo Shan-hui (郭山輝) said the service pact “must be passed regardless of its flaws,” as the pact is for the overall “uplift and cannot be opposed for a few blemishes or simply for the sake of opposition.”
Kuo said the 138 associations of Taiwanese businesspeople in China would make lists of names to guide the mobilization of potential voters.
The associations are also to help potential voters obtain group discounts for airplane tickets in order to encourage their return for the election, he added.
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in