At a ceremony marking the party's relocation to a smaller headquarters, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday urged party members to endure current hardships for the sake of accomplishing the KMT's ambition of regaining the reins of government.
Likening President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to Yuan Shih-kai (袁世凱), a warlord in the early 1900s who overthrew the Republic of China and declared himself emperor, Ma said it is time for the KMT's rebirth through reform.
"As a democratic political party, the KMT needs to observe social trends and listen to public opinion ? The relocation of KMT headquarters is the party's first step to becoming a clean party with ideals," Ma said yesterday during the party's housewarming celebration for its new headquarters.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The party sold its headquarters on Zhongshan S Road to Evergreen Corp for NT$2.3 billion (US$70 million) in March and moved to the current site on Bade Road on Monday.
Ma said moving to the new headquarters illustrated the KMT's resolve for reform and for meeting office by reducing expenditures. The new premises' annual maintenance fees of NT$8 million are one-fifth of the maintenance fees at the old residence (NT$40 million).
During the long period in which the party governed Taiwan, the headquarters once housed around 4,000 party workers. After the KMT lost power in 2000, the party began to downsize. There will only be about 120 party workers left when the KMT moves to its new building on Bade Road.
Echoing Ma's remarks, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) called on KMT members to follow Ma's leadership to win back power from the DPP in 2008.
"Since Chairman Ma has taken over the chairmanship, he has made the KMT a small but strong party," Wang said yesterday at the party function. "Now we all share a common goal of winning back government in 2008. Let's all support Chairman Ma to reach this goal."
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS