Nine KMT lawmakers and party heavyweights yesterday told journalists they may leave the KMT fold and serve as independents or join other political parties.
Other party members who did not want to be named said they may also follow suit. The lawmakers' departure could cost the KMT its lock on the Legislative Yuan. The KMT occupies 115 of the 225 seats in the legislature.
"I have observed all three major political parties since last March's presidential election, and they don't match my ideals," said KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順).
"But I don't like the fact that KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) still listens to only a few members," Huang added, saying that Lien was too far removed from the grassroots membership.
Huang said that she had discussed the KMT's development with her father -- former president of the Control Yuan, Huang Tsun-chiu (黃尊秋) -- many times before he died, and has now decided to leave the party.
Huang said she would not join any party for the time being, but Wu Ching-chih (吳清池), another disillusioned KMT lawmaker, said yesterday that he planned to run as a People First Party candidate in December's legislative elections.
"Other party lawmakers also intend to leave," Wu said.
Liu Ping-wei (
Hsu Den-koun (
In addition, former minister of the interior Huang Chu-wen (黃主文) and former party spokesman Huang Hui-chen (黃輝珍) recently both expressed their disappointment with the KMT's new platform.
"The party is betraying Lee Teng-hui's line, which still represents the mainstream thought of Taiwanese," Huang Chu-wen said.
KMT leaders said that they would maintain communications with the wavering lawmakers to persuade them into staying.
"As far as I know, only six party lawmakers have yet to re-register, and they have different reasons for considering not re-registering but we will try to satisfy them to keep them within our ranks," said director-general of the KMT's Organizational Development Committee, Chao Shou-po (
Meanwhile, Lien Chan said at the party's Central Standing Committee weekly meeting yesterday that he was moved to learn that more than 850,000 people have completed membership re-registration procedures.
The KMT, which once boasted two million members, carried out a re-registration drive between Sept. 1 and Dec.31, after its humiliating defeat in the presidential election last year.
The party's central headquarters has extended the deadline of the drive to Jan. 31 to give supporters more time to re-register.
In a related development yesterday, the KMT was preparing to welcome back one of its veteran members, Chen Li-an (
Chen, who quit the party to run independently in the 1996 presidential election, took the initiative to rejoin the party by contacting Lien to express his wishes.
The KMT attaches great importance to his return, and director-general Chao cut short his attendance at the KMT meeting to call on Chen and to bring him his re-registration forms.
According to Chao, Chen said he wants to return because he believes Taiwan and the KMT need him now.
Chen is expected to hold a press conference tomorrow to explain his motives in person.
Another KMT veteran, Lin Yang-kang (
Lin and former premier Hau Pei-tsun (
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the