The goal of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) planned extraordinary party congress later this month is to galvanize a consensus within the party to help it win January’s presidential election, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday.
After attending a Double Ten National Day ceremony earlier in the day, Chu, who doubles as New Taipei City mayor, said at the Taipei City Hall that the agenda, the date and the location for the extraordinary party congress has not been finalized.
However, what is certain is the purpose of the meeting: To galvanize a consensus to help the party win the election, Chu said.
Chu’s remarks came after the KMT Central Standing Committee on Wednesday passed a resolution unanimously to convene an extraordinary party congress later this month to consider a proposal to replace KMT presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱).
Hung, who was nominated by the party on July 19, has consistently lagged at least 20 points behind Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in most polls, and the gap has shown no signs of narrowing.
Many KMT candidates for the legislative elections, which are scheduled to be held on the same day as the presidential election, Jan. 16, fear that the weakness of Hung’s candidacy would hurt their chances, calling for another face at the top of the ticket.
Chu is expected to be drafted to replace Hung at the party congress, but when asked about the possibility of Hung as his running mate, he said it was a hypothetical question that had not been discussed within the party.
Chu said he would continue communicating with Hung, who has resisted efforts to remove her as the party’s standard-bearer, and felt confident that the issue would be satisfactorily addressed.
In response to questions on whether the KMT would cooperate with People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜), Chu said he has always respected Soong, a former KMT political heavyweight.
Chu said he would discuss possible cooperation between the two parties with Soong, adding that he believes that there are many ways to do so.
RISK FACTORS: ‘We hope people can cooperate and endure it ... it is possibly the very important last mile,’ Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations are to remain the same next month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The center reported 42,112 new local COVID-19 cases and 85 deaths, saying that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped to a new low this month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the center is keeping COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations the same due to the local virus situation, and an increase in the number of imported cases of the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2, among other risk factors. Easing
TRAVEL CONFERENCE: Representatives from the two countries exchanged views on how to increase tourist numbers, with one identifying individual travel as a trend Taiwan and South Korea aim to increase the number of tourists traveling between the two countries to 3 million, government and tourism industry representatives said at a conference in Hsinchu City yesterday. The annual event was attended by Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯); Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰); Taiwan Visitors Association chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭); South Korean Representative to Taiwan Chung Byung-won; Yoon Ji-sook, an official at the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; and Korea Association of Travel Agents chairman Oh Chang-hee. Global tourism is expected to soon rebound to between 55 and
DAMAGE CONTROL: The KMT in a statement called the Taiwan Strait ‘international waters,’ after Alexander Huang said China had the right to claim it as internal waters Lawmakers and experts yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) envoy to the US Alexander Huang (黃介正) of acting as China’s stooge, after he said that Beijing has the right to claim waters beyond its maritime territory as its exclusive economic zone and that the US has no legal basis to assert that the Taiwan Strait is an “international waterway.” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said in an online post that most of the world considers the Strait an international waterway, adding that this is important for safeguarding Taiwan. “We have seen US warships transiting through the Taiwan Strait.
The Taichung District Court yesterday sentenced to nine years in prison an unlicensed judo coach who caused the death of a seven-year-old student after slamming him onto the ground more than a dozen times. In its decision against the coach, a man surnamed Ho (何), the court cited his lack of remorse for using excessive force against an inadequately trained child and his failure to reconcile with the parents for his role in their son’s death. Speaking on behalf of the boy’s mother, Taichung City Councilor Jacky Chen (陳清龍) said the family would appeal to a higher court. Prosecutors said that Ho on
RSS