Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday openly declared his support for Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), one of the contenders for the party's top post.
Handing a baseball bat to Wu as a symbol of transfer of power, Ma shrugged off questions about fairness in publicly favoring Wu over another candidate, KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱). Lauding Wu for his experience in party affairs and capability in pushing for party unity if elected as KMT chairman, Ma said he should be free to support any person as he did not hold any party position now.
"I've been waiting for a moment like this, to return his favors all these year ... Wu is an affectionate and righteous man, and a great leader that the KMT needs at a critical time like this," Ma said during a campaigning event for Wu at Yue Yang Restaurant.
Wu served as Ma's campaign director and helped him win in the Taipei mayoral elections in 1998 and 2002.
Holding the baseball bat together with Ma to symbolize party unity and their joint efforts, Wu stressed the importance of cooperation between Ma and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"The Wang-Ma cooperation is crucial for the KMT to win the 2008 presidential election, so let's press them on to achieve this goal. I don't care about your personal gains and losses, I only care about the future of Taiwan," Wu said.
Citing the consensus reached by the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) four presidential aspirants not to violate party regulations or leave the party, nor to run as an independent if they were not picked as the party's representative, Wu urged Ma, Wang and party members to unite to win the election.
"I would be an aggressive party chairman who would allow no defeat. The KMT has to cooperate and join forces so that we can win the elections," he said.
In response to Wu's remarks, Ma said he had already promised to follow Wu's suggestion that he invite Wang to be his running mate if he were chosen as the KMT's presidential candidate.
The KMT chairman by-election will be held on April 7. Ma resigned from the post after his indictment on corruption charges in relation to alleged misuses of his mayoral allowance.
‘CORNERED ENEMY’: China’s rise is threatening peace and stability, and the US would aim to restrict it with help from allies in the Asia-Pacific, Soong Hseik-wen said A draft bill on protecting Taiwan from invasion is likely to be passed by the US Congress, but it remains to be seen how US President Joe Biden’s administration would implement the act if it is passed, Taiwanese academics said on Sunday. US Senator Rick Scott and US Representative Guy Reschenthaler on Thursday reintroduced the proposed Taiwan Invasion Prevention Act, which was shelved in September last year due to the impending US presidential election. Arthur Ding (丁樹範), a professor at National Chengchi University’s College of International Affairs, and Soong Hseik-wen (宋學文), a professor at National Chung Cheng University’s Graduate Institute
CHANGING IT UP: With Bopomofo rarely used outside of Taiwan, the lawmaker said that Romanization would help the government in its internationalization efforts Tainan City Councilor Lee Chi-wei (李啟維) yesterday called for the use of Romanized spellings to make Taiwanese dialects and languages internationally recognizable. Speaking at a news conference in Tainan to mark International Mother Language Day, Lee said the use of zhuyin fuhao (注音符號, Mandarin phonetic symbols commonly known as Bopomofo) made it difficult to promote interest in, or recognition of, the nation’s dialects and languages, as the system is not commonly used outside of Taiwan. “The legislature has already passed the Development of National Languages Act (國家語言發展法), but under the current circumstances that act is like a candle in the wind,” he
CULTURAL CAPITAL: Taiwanese can act as ambassadors while teaching in the US, by exchanging views with their colleagues and friends, one Mandarin teacher said Most US students take Chinese classes because they want to know more about China, but Taiwanese teachers can make a change with more flexible pedagogic approaches and cultural exchanges, two local teachers said. Since the US last year canceled its Fulbright programs with China and Hong Kong, Taiwan has been granted a larger quota of scholarships, including the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Fulbright Program, which is funded by the US Department of State and comanaged in Taiwan by the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange. American Institute in Taiwan Director Brent Christensen last month encouraged Taiwan to fill the gap left by the closures
CHINESE AGGRESSION: The bill seeks to empower Taiwan by calling for a free-trade pact and authorizing the US president to use military force to defend Taiwan US Senator Rick Scott and US Representative Guy Reschenthaler on Thursday reintroduced in the US Congress the Taiwan invasion prevention act, aiming to boost Taiwan’s ability to resist Chinese aggression. While the bill was introduced last year by Scott and former US representative Ted Yoho, it was not listed onto the formal agenda in the run-up to the US presidential election in November last year. “We can’t sit back and let Communist China continue to threaten our democratic ally Taiwan,” Scott, a Republican, wrote on Twitter, urging US President Joe Biden and other Democractic senators to “take a stand for democracy” and
RSS