Outgoing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday appointed KMT vice chairperson Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) as the party’s interim chairperson, with Chu saying that he would never forget that the party lost the elections under his leadership.
Chu made the remarks before the KMT’s Central Standing Committee (CSC) was set to approve his resignation as party chairman at an extraordinary meeting in Taipei yesterday afternoon.
“I pledged to step down [as KMT chairman] should I be defeated in the elections... The KMT has an established tradition in which its leader takes full responsibility for the party’s loss or victory,” Chu said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Chu said he would take the largest share of responsibility for the party’s landslide defeat and planned to engage in some serious self-reflection, while apologizing to supporters and all his comrades in the party for letting them down.
“I will never forget that the KMT lost power under my governance,” Chu said.
The KMT would only be able to regain the public’s trust if it learns from its mistakes, Chu said.
The priority for the party’s next chairman would be to formulate reform proposals that could be accepted by the public and the party, Chu said.
“Despite my resignation, I will forever be the KMT’s most loyal member and will stand alongside every party comrade during reforms,” Chu said, adding that he believed Huang would take good care of the party before a chairmanship election was held.
According to the KMT charter, an election for party chairman must be held within three months of the resignation of an incumbent.
Several KMT members have reportedly expressed interest in the post, including Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), former KMT vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), former Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
Following yesterday’s committee meeting, a dozen KMT members visited Wu at the Presidential Office to try and persuade him to run for the party chairmanship.
“During the KMT’s most difficult time, the party needs someone who can unite its members... Wu once served as the party’s secretary-general and has experience in elections,” CSC member Yao Chiang-lin (姚江臨) said.
Hau — who stepped down as KMT vice chairman on Saturday after failing to secure a legislative seat in Keelung — downplayed the issue yesterday when asked to comment on some party members’ calls for him to take up the post, saying he has not given the matter any thought.
In related news, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) also offered to resign yesterday, following the party’s poor performance in the legislative elections.
The New Power Party’s success at the ballots came as the TSU’s support crumbled, with the union losing all three of its legislator-at-large seats.
Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance conveners also resigned yesterday following the alliance’s disappointing showing in Saturday’s legislative elections.
She had to take responsibility for the failure of her party to win any legislative seats, Social Democratic Party convener Fan Yun (范雲) said in her resignation speech.
Green Party Taiwan co-conveners Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) and Chang Yu-ching (張育憬) also resigned.
The two parties founded an electoral alliance in hopes of pooling their votes to cross the 5 percent threshold required to be awarded at-large seats but won only 2.53 percent.
Additional reporting by Abraham Gerber and staff writer
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS