Even as the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) chairmanship election campaign began heating up, some people yesterday started asking that the poll be postponed for a year.
"As the new chairman would have very little time to map out campaign strategies for the city mayor and county commissioner elections, many party members thought it might be a good idea to postpone it for a year," said KMT legislator and Central Standing Committee member Lee Chuan-chiao (
"It could also help cool down the already fierce competition between Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Besides, if the KMT loses in the elections later this year, Lee said, the new chairman would be obliged to step down and shoulder political responsibility.
"It would be another blow to the party, and I don't think many members would like to see that," he said.
Lee said that he and his colleague Liu Cheng-hung (
If approved, he will then present the proposal to the party's national assembly meeting in May. A new chairman is scheduled to take office in August.
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
When asked whether he would propose postponing the chairmanship poll again because of the elections for Taipei and Kaohsiung mayors next year, Lee said that he would not, because next year's elections would be easy in comparison to this year's mayoral and county commissioner poll.
Commenting on Lee's plan, Wang yesterday said that he will leave the matter to Lien.
"Although his argument makes sense, it remains uncertain whether the plan is feasible," Wang told reporters.
Wang also criticized the media for sowing discord between him and Ma.
"Only harmony between us can bring future to the party. I hold utmost respect for Ma and I hope he realizes that some media have been deliberately distributing false comments and trying to create friction between us," he said.
Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun (
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:
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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