New Taipei City Mayor and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said he would explain why he is not running for president after the period for aspirants to sign up ends on May 16.
In response to questions from reporters on Friday, Chu declared his absence from the presidential election scheduled for Jan. 16 next year. However, some KMT party members who have called for his nomination appear to be unwilling to give up hope, saying that Chu’s remarks on Friday did not constitute a formal announcement.
Chu said that he would give a clear account of his position on the presidential election after May 16.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“You do not need to ask me the same questions, do you?” Chu said in response to media queries upon arriving at the headquarters of the Republic of China Women’s Association to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the KMT-affiliated organization. “There is no need to repeat what has already been said.”
Chu again urged KMT members who wish to serve the nation to make their bid public as soon as possible to show that the KMT is committed to a successful presidential campaign.
“As party chairman, I sincerely hope the KMT field the best and most suitable presidential candidate, and that all party members unite in support of the candidate to provide Taiwan and the Republic of China a better future,” Chu said.
According to the KMT’s nomination rules, presidential aspirants are required to collect signatures from at least 5 percent of the party’s 300,000 members to endorse their candidacy during the 27-day registration period from tomorrow to May 16, and to pay a NT$2 million (US$64,181) refundable deposit and NT$7 million to subsidize the primary.
In response to a report in the Chinese-language China Times yesterday quoting an unnamed KMT source as reporting that the party could order Chu to represent the party in the election if no one else registers as a candidate before May 16, Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said: “How could it be possible?”
“I have said I would take part in the primary, have I not?” Hung said, adding that she has NT$2 million ready and would pick up an application form tomorrow.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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