The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday shrugged off the possibility of another pan-blue split, this time in Yilan County, after the wife of late KMT deputy secretary-general Liao Fung-te (廖風德) claimed a registration form for December’s county commissioner election.
Liao’s wife, Kuo Mei-fang (郭美芳) yesterday confirmed that a friend had claimed a registration form on Monday, but declined to say whether or not she would complete the registration process and run in the election.
Liao, who died after collapsing during a hike last year, was a key party official who helped the party win the previous legislative election and local government elections. He was 57.
KMT Secretary-General Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) yesterday said it was unlikely that Kuo would join the election and run against the KMT’s nominee, incumbent commissioner Lu Kuo-hua (呂國華).
“I don’t think Mrs Liao will join the election, and I believe Mr. Liao [Fung-te] would not have been happy to see such a development,” he said.
The KMT has been scrambling to handle splits in a number of cities and counties ahead of the upcoming election.
The party’s Disciplinary Committee and the Committee Against Corruption held a meeting yesterday to discuss possible disciplinary action against Hsinchu county council speaker Chang Pi-chin (張碧琴) after the KMT’s Hsinchu chapter expelled Chang on Monday for registering for the year-end local election and recommended the party take further disciplinary action against her.
The party’s Central Standing Committee announced it had expelled her last night.
The KMT has nominated KMT Legislator Chiu Ching-chun (邱鏡淳) as its candidate for Hsinchu County commissioner.
The party is also split in Taitung County, Hualien County and Nantou County. As for the Yunlin County commissioner election, Chan, in response to a query on whether Yunlin Technology University associate professor Wu Wei-chi (吳威志) would be the party’s candidate, said yesterday that “this was likely,” but added that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who will take over the party chairmanship later this month, would make the final decision.
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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