Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday dismissed speculation that some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators might quit the party if she wins the chairmanship by-election.
“Since a party chairperson is elected with the support of a majority of party members, it means that most members agree with that person’s ideas and have decided to let that person take the party helm,” Hung said in Taipei, when asked to comment on the reports.
Hung, who has been branded a champion of rapid unification due to her “one China, same interpretation” proposal, said the only explanation is that people who differ in their ways simply cannot take counsel with each other.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
Hung made the remarks after meeting with members of a newly formed alliance called the Structure Defenders” (制度者聯盟).
Established yesterday by scores of KMT representatives and Central Committee members, the alliance has seven aims: holding a debate on the KMT’s future policy direction, revitalizing the KMT’s young forces, establishing a bottom-up policymaking mechanism, cultivating young talent, ensuring transparency of party assets, strengthening ties with people at the grassroots level, as well as lowering thresholds for party chairman election and holding a televised debate and policy presentation among candidates.
Hung said she is willing to participate in a debate on the KMT’s future direction, but it is up to each and every party member to decide to whom they aspire to entrust their party.
As for continued concerns within the KMT about her cross-strait stance, Hung said she is the one to blame because she has failed to elucidate her policies.
“I will surely explain them in the future, but not now,” she said.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖), who won re-election in the Jan. 16 polls, yesterday threw his hat in the bid for party chairperson, saying his decision was prompted by three reasons.
“First, only a handful of the KMT’s middle-aged members managed to secure victory in the recent elections. As one of them, I cannot sit back and watch while the KMT faces its most difficult time,” Chen said.
The 58-year-old said he also wanted to help the KMT determine the causes of its landslide defeat and create a bottom-up democratic mechanism within the party.
Chen said he had consulted with many peers before making his decision, including former KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), but declined to reveal whether Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who is reportedly interested in vying for the position, was one of them.
Chen is the fifth KMT member to join the by-election, after Hung, former KMT vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), as well as Taipei City councilors Lee Hsin (李新) and Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平).
According to KMT headquarters’ schedules for the by-election, which is planned for March 26, applicants can pick up registration forms for the election today and tomorrow.
They also have to collect signatures from at least 3 percent of all party members between today and Feb. 21 before they can officially register their candidacy on Feb. 22.
See STORIES on page 8
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS