Former National Security Council secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) was reportedly hired in early June by the Presidential Office as a senior adviser to help President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) save the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) from dismal election prospects.
In addition to rumors surrounding the appointment, the absence of an announcement from the office about the hiring has been questioned.
The latest issue of the Chinese-language Next Magazine yesterday reported that King, who resigned from the council in February for health and family reasons, was hired as a senior adviser as far back as June.
Photo: CNA
According to the report, King returned from the US in the middle of last month and has met Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and KMT presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) to discuss election-related issues and evaluate the possibility of replacing Hung.
However, King has come to realize that a replacement would no longer be feasible, as Hung has been insistent on her stay in the presidential ring by asserting that she had obtained her nomination through due procedure, the magazine reported.
Wu would be the most likely to take over the candidacy if Hung were to be replaced, but as Hung said once, it would be meaningless if she were to be replaced by someone who has lower poll numbers than she does, Next Magazine said.
Wang, on the other hand, told King’s envoy that he would “go with the flow,” a statement that has been interpreted by King’s team as his willingness to run for president on the KMT ticket, the report said.
However, Ma’s unrelenting opposition to Wang as the KMT candidate has made this replacement almost impossible, it added.
Although Chu is a potential candidate many see as the KMT’s strongest option, he is determined not to run for president, the report said.
King is said to have therefore concluded that the time to replace Hung has passed and decided to focus instead on assisting the party’s legislative election campaigns and portfolio reshuffling afterward.
Presidential Office spokesperson Charles Chen (陳以信) said that no announcement about King’s hiring was necessary because it was a single appointment instead of a major reshuffle.
King had been offered the post in February, but did not accept the appointment until June because he had chosen to take some time off for health reasons, Chen said.
Many in the party, including former premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), were appointed advisers after a power reshuffle following the KMT’s drubbing in the nine-in-one elections in November last year.
Chen said that it is convention that the Presidential Office does not make public announcements about minor changes concerning senior advisers or policy advisers.
However, the Presidential Office issued a media release in 2009 on former premier Liu Chao-shiuan’s (劉兆玄) appointment as a senior adviser.
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