Following former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chang Sho-wen’s (張碩文) announcement of his withdrawal from the party on Monday, two KMT legislators yesterday threatened to do the same, with one saying the cross-strait policy of presumptive KMT presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) was the source of her misgivings.
Chang, who was also KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien’s (連勝文) spokesperson during the campaign last year, released a statement on Monday announcing his withdrawal from the party.
He had said a day earlier that a ruling party “obsessed with a power struggle” is no longer worth supporting.
Photo: Kuo An-chia, Taipei Times
“I decided to leave the party to carry out more efforts that many people expect me to accomplish,” Chang said in the statement, adding that a political party should serve the public, rather than be “a fetter restricting individuals.”
Chang said that he left the party because he “came from the people, and as the KMT is now walking in the opposite direction from the people, I of course have to go back to the people.”
He is said to have planned to run for a legislative seat on the People First Party’s ticket, challenging Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重).
Photo: Liao Shu-ling, Taipei Times
KMT Legislator Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟), who failed to secure the party’s nomination to run in Taichung, said the KMT “has no regard for party members’ thoughts and deeds.”
After a high-level party member said that it is better to have the party lose members than to have members without a sense of identity, Chi said of course members should have a sense of party identity, but the party has to make itself worth identifying with.
“We do not need enemies when we have members aspiring for a smaller party,” Chi said.
When asked whether he would join the legislative race with another political party, Chi said it is too early to say, as the election is six months away.
However, he also underlined his resolution to run.
KMT Legislator Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡) said she would consider withdrawing “if the party cannot be an open party, as it said it would be.”
Already nominated by the KMT to run for a third term in Yunlin County, Chang Chia-chun said there is strong opposition at the local level against Hung’s “one China, same interpretation.”
“I myself consider [Hung’s cross-strait policy] an idea that has gone off the track of the KMT’s consensus,” she said.
Chi agreed that Hung’s proposal has had “obvious impacts,” as “same interpretation and respective interpretations are miles apart.”
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) agreed that Hung has to adjust her cross-strait proposal so it would not harm the party’s legislative election prospects in central and southern Taiwan.
“I cannot blame Chang Chia-chun; I cannot even blame the DPP for categorizing Hung as a ‘unificationist,’” Wu said. “There will be pressure for Hung to make adjustments — and it will not be coming from the DPP, but from the KMT itself.”
Wu added that it is not difficult for Hung to make adjustments to her proposal, as the discussion for setting up reciprocal offices between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has already been under way; the basic underlying logic of the measure is mutual recognition of one China, but employing different words for it, he said.
Hung simply has to revise the proposal “and make it consistent with the party’s” before July 19, the date of the party congress, Wu said.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
RSS