The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday elected 32 members to its Central Standing Committee (CSC) — the highest decisionmaking body in the party — with party legislators and second-generation KMT heavyweights headlining the election list.
All six KMT lawmakers taking part in the election were voted into position yesterday with KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) topping the list. Other elected legislators including Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊櫻), Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟), Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟), Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) and Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟). Second-generation KMT heavyweights were also on the list, including Taipei City Councilor Wu Chih-kang (吳志剛) — the son of former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) — as well as Yao Ching-ling (饒慶玲) — the daughter of former legislative speaker Yao Eng-chi (饒穎奇).
However, Chao Shih-tsong (趙世聰) — the son of senior advisor to the Presidential Office Chao Shou-po (趙守博) — did not win an elected slot.
Wu Chih-kang meanwhile has been elected as a CSC member for the first time.
During the process yesterday the KMT’s CSC election committee chair Chiu Chuang-huan (邱創煥) mistakenly announced that Chao Shih-tsong had been included on the list of candidates for youth league representative and this forced Taipei City Councilor Carolyn Chieh (闕枚莎) off the list as she holds a paid position in public office.
The election committee failed to correct the information until Chieh informed the group that election regulations bar those holding positions at Cabinet-level from the list.
Members of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) so-called “troops”, including Chieh, KMT Taipei City Councilor Lai Su-ju (賴素如) and Li Keng Kuei-fang (厲耿桂芳) were also re-elected to the group. New Taipei City Councilor Chen Ming-yi (陳明義), however, failed to get re-elected.
Former Taipei EasyCard chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) — the son of former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) — did not join the election.
The CSC’s 32 members meet weekly to approve major policies. However, the committee’s role was weakened after Ma was first elected party chairman in 2005 and began meeting with party officials to discuss major decisions in a separate weekly meeting.
There has been far less competition for the positions since the KMT tightened its regulations in 2010 following a string of bribery scandals. The party banned certain campaign strategies which had been used by candidates to solicit support, including hosting banquets and handing out gifts.
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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