Speculation mounted yesterday on possible tensions between the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) two 2008 presidential hopefuls over the party's plan to change its nomination system for at-large legislators.
Under the KMT's nomination system, the list of legislator-at-large nominees is decided by a nine-seat committee appointed by the party chairman. The committee's nominees must receive a vote of confidence from the party's 210-seat Central Committee.
KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday confirmed media reports that the party has been considering a change to this system ahead of next year's legislative elections.
"We are planning to have the legislator-at-large nominees selected by the party's local representatives, which is a more democratic method than the current one," Ma said.
The Chinese-language United Daily News reported yesterday that the changes were directed at Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who secured the first nomination for a KMT at-large legislative seat.
But Wang played down the report, saying that such talk aimed to damage relations between the two party bigwigs.
"I don't think that the changes are directed at me. But if they are, I wouldn't be the only one they are directed at," Wang said yesterday when asked to comment on the changes.
Wang, touted as a possible presidential candidate for 2008, added that he had many options besides another campaign for a legislative seat.
"As party chairman, of course I would like to choose the legislator-at-large nominees myself. But since that is not democratic, we have to have a new system that allows more people to participate in the nomination," Ma said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
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
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The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift