Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday threw his support behind Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) potential speakership bid, as dozens of KMT lawmakers launched a signature drive calling for Wang to be placed on top of the party’s list of legislator-at-large candidates.
“Wang is the incumbent legislative speaker and also one of the KMT’s most significant leaders. He is highly revered in the party,” Chu said during a trip to Kaohsiung, in response to questions about the possibility of Wang heading the KMT’s legislator-at-large candidate list.
Chu, who is also the KMT’s chairman, said he believed Wang, who has served as a legislator for four decades and legislative speaker for 18 years, would continue to fight alongside the party for the Republic of China.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“He will keep on leading the legislature,” Chu added.
The chairman dismissed calls by the KMT’s Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) — a military veterans’ branch of the party — that Wang be placed 10th on the list to boost the party’s legislative prospects, saying Wang was respected by most party members.
Some have interpreted Chu’s remarks as confirmation that Wang has received a green light from KMT leadership to seek a fourth term as a legislator-at-large.
Wang retaining his legislator-at-large status was impossible until the KMT’s Central Standing Committee on Wednesday passed a motion to lift the party’s self-imposed three-term limit on legislator-at-large seats for legislative speakers.
Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) yesterday initiated a petition at the party’s caucus meeting urging party headquarters to offer the first place on the legislator-at-large list to Wang.
The petition had been signed by 36 of the KMT’s 65 lawmakers as of press time last night.
To demonstrate respect for Wang, whose maneuvering skills are second to none, the KMT leadership has been strongly urged to place the speaker’s name on the top of the list, KMT Legislator Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) said.
KMT Legislator Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) said the party’s delay in finalizing the list has put Wang in an awkward position.
However, Wang Jin-pyng said he respected the party’s leadership and would let events run their course.
“If given the opportunity, I would not shirk my responsibility,” he said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai