New Taipei City Mayor and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday reiterated that the party’s mechanism for the selection of its candidates for next year’s legislative election would be open and transparent, in an effort to assuage growing concerns over his recent decision to establish a “campaign strategy committee” to replace the party’s primary system.
“Openness and transparency will be ensured [in the party’s candidate selection process]. We will handle the matter in a flexible and strategic manner,” Chu said on the sidelines of a tree-planting event in New Taipei City’s Shihding District (石碇) yesterday.
The two-term New Taipei City mayor made the remarks four days after the KMT’s Central Standing Committee passed an impromptu motion to establish a seven-member “legislative election campaign strategy committee” to help the party win a potentially cutthroat battle in next year’s legislative election.
The committee is tasked with overseeing the nomination and campaign strategies for all of the party’s legislative candidates for regional and Aboriginal seats in the legislature, as well as compiling its list of legislator-at-large nominees.
Chu said that every political party has its own stronghold constituencies.
“In constituencies where more than one party member is planning to compete for the candidacy, there must be negotiations and a primary, while in more difficult ones, the party has to select a candidate. That is why the committee is needed,” Chu said.
Turning to the heatedly discussed issue of creating a “nuclear-free homeland” by 2025, Chu said that the key to reaching the goal still lies in energy conservation.
“It is apparent that the country is wasting energy and it is extremely vital that we figure out a way for industries and families to use energy in a more efficient manner,” Chu said.
He said there were three measures that could help Taiwan follow in South Korea’s footsteps to successfully save energy equivalent to the capacity of a nuclear power plant: offering guidance to traditional industries with high energy consumption; building smart grids; and further promoting energy-efficient lighting options to schools and households.
The issue of a potential visit to the US by Chu was also brought up yesterday, given that Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) — who has registered in the party’s primary for next year’s presidential election — revealed on Saturday that she plans to visit Washington later this year.
However, Chu, who is considered a likely presidential candidate to represent the KMT in next year’s race, said such a visit did not necessarily have to happen this year, adding that a more stabilized Taiwan-US relationship required long-term interactions.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching