Two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopefuls yesterday called on the party to make a decision about how to handle its primary to choose a candidate for next year’s election.
KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who served as legislative speaker for 17 years, said that the party’s mercurial approach to nomination regulations made it difficult to comment or react, while former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) said that regardless of the options, the party must decide soon.
As long as a candidate is chosen fairly, everyone would support the decision, Wang added.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
They were responding to a series of comments by KMT officials, such as KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) insinuation on Saturday last week that the party would consider drafting Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) as a potential candidate.
KMT Organizational Development Committee director Lee Che-hua (李哲華) on Wednesday proposed that the party sit down with Chu and Wang for “pre-primary negotiations” about listing Han among them in public opinion polls and party member surveys, as Han is unlikely to register for the primary himself.
Chu said that he would not rule out support for drafting Han if it is the best option for the party.
However, Lee’s proposal would cause others who have dropped the idea of running to reconsider, Chu said, naming Taipei City Councilor Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫偉) and Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中) as examples.
Lee yesterday said that his proposal would prevent the possibility of the KMT National Congress selecting another candidate over the person who won the party primary.
“We would have liked for Chu and Wang to consider including Han as a possible candidate, as it would mean that regardless of who prevails, the party has selected its best candidate,” Lee said.
However, if Wang and Chu will not settle matters via negotiations, then the primary would continue as planned, Lee added.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
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
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS