Minister Without Portfolio David Chung (
"The KMT believes only in advantages and disadvantages, not right and wrong," he said at a press conference yesterday.
Chung said he had considered leaving the party and the government for quite some time.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"The last straw ... was the raid on Liu Sung-fan's (
Liu, who is a former legislative speaker and now a campaign official for independent presidential candidate James Soong (
Taichung District Court Judge Chuang Shen-yuan (莊深淵) ordered a raid on Liu's house last week on suspicion that he had been involved in illegal financial deals with a troubled Taichung-based conglomerate.
"I don't know whether Liu has broken the law. "What I do know, however, is that he would have still been enjoying a good reputation and respect had he stayed within the KMT and backed KMT candidates, even if he had broken the law," Chung said.
It was widely anticipated Chung would announce his support for Soong yesterday.
The KMT said Chung's withdrawal from the party was a calculated political move that would have only a minor impact on the outcome of the election.
As a high rank official both in government and once in the KMT, Chung's sudden withdrawal only 23 days before the election raised eyebrows in political circles.
Chung, who previously had been deputy secretary-general of the KMT and the secretary-general of the party's Taiwan Provincial Committee, yesterday also admitted to "feeling guilty" about some jobs he had done in political interests of the party while serving as a high ranking party official.
But he declined to specify what he had done.
He said that it is painful to watch and participate in the KMT's injustice, and he could not stand it any longer.
"In the past, some people followed the party's orders and did some things to keep the party in power -- some of these things might have been wrong," he said.
Asked repeatedly if he would support Soong, Chung said that he could not directly answer the question, and he would take time to consider his next step.
KMT spokesman Huang Hwei-chen (
"Through these occasional defections, [the Soong camp] intends to propagate the false image that they are strong."
Former KMT heavyweights Liu Sung-fan and the former minister of justice Liao Cheng-hao (
KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan's (
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