Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday reached an agreement with outgoing KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) to postpone the party’s Central Committee and Central Standing Committee (CSC) elections until after its national congress on Aug. 20, when Wu is to become chairman.
CSC member Yao Chiang-lin (姚江臨), who is responsible for negotiations on the leadership handover, said the two sides reached the conclusion at a meeting yesterday.
The elections were scheduled for July 8 and July 29, but 26 CSC members proposed to have them in September, after Wu takes office.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The KMT has booked Chungshan Hall in Yangmingshan in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) as the venue for the congress.
The Chinese-language United Daily News quoted Yao as saying that Wu had agreed to share with Hung nomination rights for Central Committee members.
Wu and Hung are to jointly propose a list of Central Committee nominees next week, Yao said.
The two had been at loggerheads over the nomination rights for weeks.
Yao said that 163 of the 210 Central Committee members had announced re-election bids.
According to standard practice for the party, those 163 members would be nominated automatically.
Citing an estimate by her aides, Hung on Wednesday said that among the remaining 47 seats, about 38 would be secured by nonpartisan members.
That would leave nine nominations for Hung and Wu to make.
Wu on Wednesday said CSC members who sought to postpone the elections should consult the KMT agencies in charge of polls, but the date had not been determined.
Hung’s camp said yesterday’s meeting meeting did not touch on the date of the national congress or when the elections would be held.
The issues require further negotiations, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hu Wen-chi (胡文琦) said.
The two sides agreed that Central Committee members and candidates for KMT party representative seats reserved for party members running businesses in China are to be jointly nominated by Hung and Wu, Hu said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2