The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday denied rumors that the party is working to "clean house" by kicking out pro-localization members and others who have been seen frequently interacting with the pan-green camp.
Saying that the party had no such intention, KMT spokeswoman Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) yesterday dismissed the rumors as "another attempt by people who wish to make use of all their time to drive wedges among party members."
Kuo said that "Party Chairman Lien Chan (
"Chairman Lien is confident in all the party's members and legislators," Kuo said, saying that "the party right now has no intention of cleaning house, but only of staying united" in order to perform well in the year-end legislative elections.
The talk of "cleaning house" has come in the midst of mounting calls from members of the party's pro-localization faction who, in the wake of Lien's failure to win the presidential election, have urged the party to speed up reforms. The pro-localization faction has also expressed concern about Lien's proposal to merge the KMT with the People First Party.
While declining to name individuals, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Lo Chih-ming (
Having been implicated in such remarks, pro-localization KMT members such as Legislators Chen Hung-chang (
"The idea has never crossed my mind," Hsu said.
Chang said that he had been asked by the TSU several times if he were willing to switch party membership.
"My leaving the KMT is very unlikely ? I'd rather be considered a black sheep within the KMT," Chang said.
Chang's remarks meshed with those of TSU caucus whip Chen Chien-ming (
Saying that he is sure that no one within the party wants to defect, Legislative Speaker and KMT Vice Chairman Wang Jin-pyng (
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,