The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee is willing to consider revising the party’s charter to automatically give the post of party chairman to the nation’s president if the KMT holds the presidency because this would allow the smooth integration of party and government policies, KMT Cultural and Communications Committee deputy head Yin Wei (殷瑋) said yesterday.
Yin’s comments followed reports by local media that soon after being re-elected as party chairman on Saturday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — who ran unopposed — moved to amend the KMT’s charter to bind the party chairmanship to the office of president.
The move would mean that if the KMT wins the presidential election in 2016, Ma would have to step down as party chairman to make way for the new president.
Sources within the party said that proposals to amend the charter can only be made during the party’s national congress, and since there was still a long way to go before the next convention, it is unlikely that the matter will be decided any time soon.
Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said he had always supported the idea that under a KMT government, the president should double as the party chairman to better integrate the policies of the party with those of the central government.
Commenting on the high percentage of the party electorate — close to 90 percent — that voted for Ma in the chairmanship election, Hu said the party should be encouraged by the KMT still being united behind the president despite the tough political climate.
Hu said he supported the amendment to the charter, adding that it would bring about greater efficiency in the central government, as well as benefitting both the nation and the party.
However, the Greater Taichung mayor also cautioned that the party should not let the euphoria of the KMT election go to its head.
Ma’s biggest problem since being sworn into office in 2008 has been his inability to raise his approval ratings among the public, Hu said, adding that the party still has a long way to go to win popular support.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS