Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) stepped down yesterday after the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) larger-than-expected defeat in yesterday’s nine-in-one elections dealt a stiff blow to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who has staked his reputation on fostering closer ties with Beijing.
Jiang announced his resignation last night to take responsibility for the KMT’s loss of key posts. The party lost the Taipei mayorship it has held for 16 years its candidate, Sean Lien (連勝文), was beaten by independent Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who was backed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The DPP also wrested control of Greater Taichung and Taoyuan from the KMT.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Jiang told a press briefing that Ma has accepted his resignation and would soon announce his replacement, as well as other new members of the Cabinet.
“Today’s election results show that the people are dissatisfied with the administration’s policies,” Jiang said. “The people have spoken clearly through their votes. I have decided to assume political responsibility.”
Later yesterday, Ma, who is also KMT chairman, bowed to apologize for the results and vowed reforms.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
“I apologize to all [KMT] supporters for disappointing them. I have approved Premier Jiang’s resignation. At this moment, my responsibility is to put forward proposals to respond to people’s demands,” Ma told a press conference at 9pm.
However, Ma said the KMT would not be knocked down easily.
“It’s time to wipe away our tears and get back on our feet to continue to fight for Taiwan and for the Republic of China,” Ma said. “We have no reason to be pessimistic. What we should do now is think about how to advance reform. The party will continue to move the country forward and open it up.”
Before Ma arrived at the KMT’s headquarters in Taipei at 8pm, several party members gathered outside the building to demand that he resign as chairman.
Among the protesting KMT members was Sung Hung-lieh (宋宏烈), the son of Sung Shih-hsuan (宋時選), a late KMT heavyweight who was part of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) staff. Sung Hung-lieh said that Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) should take over the party chairmanship.
The unprecedented defeat will make it hard for the KMT to hold onto the presidency in 2016 and the heavy losses point to an electorate that is turning increasingly against Ma’s forging of closer ties with China, political observers said.
Beijing refrained from giving an opinion about the results, saying only that it hopes peaceful bilateral relations will be sustained.
“We have taken note of the election results. It is hoped that compatriots on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait will cherish the hard-earned fruits of cross-strait relations and work together to safeguard and continue to push forward the peaceful development of cross-strait ties,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said yesterday.
Additional reporting by CNA
INCURSION: After 13 PLA aircraft flew into Taiwan’s ADIZ, the US Department of State said that China should rather ‘engage in meaningful dialogue’ with Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday urged China to stop placing military pressure on Taiwan, while calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in peaceful dialogue. The statement by the US Department of State was issued after 13 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force scrambled fighter jets to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets until the planes left the ADIZ. The US “notes
‘INCREASED VIGILANCE’: A source of infection has not yet been found for the latest two cases in a hospital cluster, which should serve as a warning, Chen Shih-chung said A total of 2,991 people associated with a COVID-19 cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital have been put under home isolation, after an emergency expanded isolation order was issued on Sunday evening, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Fifteen people have so far tested positive in the cluster infection. The first case in the cluster (case No. 838) was reported on Jan. 12 — a doctor who treated an infected patient who had returned from the US. Contact tracing for the first 13 cases found connections to case No. 838, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who
FAMILY UNIT: The CECC warned that the eldest sister of the latest case, who also has COVID-19, visited Taoyuan’s Chungping evening market on Tuesday and Wednesday The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19, associated with a recent cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the latest case (No. 885) is a woman in her 50s, who is the third daughter of case No. 881, a man in his 90s. The woman is the main caregiver of her elderly father, who had been hospitalized earlier this month and was treated by a nurse (case No. 852) from Monday to Thursday last week, he said, adding that
DUBIOUS HONOR? A man in his 90s, who tested positive yesterday and is part of the Taoyuan hospital cluster, is the oldest person in Taiwan to have contracted COVID-19 Taiwan yesterday recorded six new imported cases of COVID-19 and two new domestic cases, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said, adding that the local infections are linked to the cluster at Taoyuan General Hospital, which now totals 12 cases. One of the domestic cases is a man in his 90s, who was treated earlier this month at Taoyuan General Hospital and tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday last week, four days before he was discharged, the center said in a statement. After one of the nurses on the ward was confirmed on Saturday last week to have contracted COVID-19, the
RSS