While praising Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
When reporters asked Wang, also a KMT vice chairman, about whether the upcoming the chairman election was a struggle between him and Ma, he said that harmony within the party was the most important thing.
"Whether I run in the election or not, I'll show respect toward Mayor Ma, and I will protect him to a great degree because he is an important asset of KMT's, and we should cherish him," Wang said.
But Wang also said that it was "unnecessary" to hold a meeting with Ma.
"Right now one person has announced his intention to run [for the chairmanship], but the other person's intention is unknown. What is to be talked about?" Wang said.
Wang also said that the chairmanship election should not be considered connected to the 2008 presidential campaign.
"There are still a few years left before the next presidential election, and there could be significant changes before that. Those who want to run for the chairmanship should not link the that election with the presidential election," he said.
While praising Ma, Wang also tried to elevate his own campaign.
"The KMT has been trying to conduct party reform so that party policies can be decided by the legislative caucus instead of the party headquarters. However, the reform could not be realized in the past decade," Wang said.
"If there is an opportunity for the legislative speaker to double as the party chairman, we could make that reform a reality," he said.
Wang also addressed the pan-green camp's contention that the speaker should not double as a party chairman, and said the two roles did not conflict.
"The Legislative Yuan's internal regulations do not say that the speaker cannot participate in politics or decision-making other than the legislature's affairs," Wang said.
Earlier in the morning the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said that if the speaker was also a party chairman this would interfere with his impartiality in legislative affairs, and the caucus hoped Wang would deal with the problem first before considering running for the chairmanship.
"If Wang doubles as the KMT chairman, his other role will interfere with legislative impartiality. As the speaker, Wang represents the Legislative Yuan as a whole, so he also represents the DPP caucus and the Taiwan Solidarity Union caucus to some degree," DPP caucus whip Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said.
"But if Wang doubles as party chairman, he may ignore other caucuses' stances when he speaks in public, and he really has to deal with this possible problem before running for the chairmanship," Lai said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods