A member of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Central Standing Committee yesterday suggested the party change its name to the "Taiwan Nationalist Party."
Hung Yu-chin (
Hung also proposed merging the KMT with the People First Party (PFP), ahead of next March's presidential election, in order to strengthen their cooperation.
Given the sensitivity of Hung's suggestions, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) ordered the party's policy-making department to review the proposals and they were not discussed further.
Another suggestion was also making waves among top party members yesterday.
Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Jung-wei (
Chang proposed that Wang fill in for Lien during the 40 days before the March 20 poll to highlight the KMT's pro-localization image as well as to allow Lien to focus on his campaign.
Wang, a Kaohsiung County native, is regarded by many pan-blue supporters as the key representative of the pro-localization faction.
Wang appeared to be caught off-guard by the proposal, telling reporters, "I don't know why Chang made such a suggestion."
After a brief moment he went on to say, "I am not the first in-line vice chairman, I am the second in-line vice chairman, so logically [Chang's] suggestion is impossible."
The KMT has six vice chairmen, with former premier Vincent Siew (
When further pressed by the media about whether he would accept such a temporary posting if Siew did not want it, Wang, noting "the issue is sensitive," said he would not comment further.
Lien's only comment was that "all would go according to party procedure."
Party Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (
"It is a moderate pro-localization party and not radical one," he said.
Chang's suggestion drew a mixed response from the KMT's pro-localization faction.
"Chang's idea is very good," said KMT Legislator Chen Hung-chang (
"It would not only allow Lien to focus on his campaign but also would further strengthen the party's pro-localization image with the voters," he said, adding several other members shared his views.
KMT Legislator Lee Chuan-chiao (
While noting that Chang's suggestion does open room for discussion and acknowledging that Wang's stepping into the chairmanship temporarily "would more or less be helpful to Lien's electoral outlook," Lin said the idea wasn't really open for discussion.
"An issue like this should be initiated by Lien himself, whether he sees a need to have a substitute while he is on the campaign trail," Lin said.
"If Lien sees no such need, it is rather inappropriate for others to make such call," he said.
In other election-related news, the KMT yesterday proposed Dec. 25 as the date of the first presidential election debate.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not