Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday announced her bid to enter the race to lead the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), saying the party is on the edge of collapse and the by-election for its chairpersonship is crucial to the party’s rebuilding efforts.
Hung told an early evening news conference in Taipei that she is willing to “be the first to bend down, pick up the pieces and rebuild,” vowing to rediscover the party’s core values.
She said that, if given the opportunity to lead the KMT, she would help build a team to take over the leadership in the future, employ more talent and encourage members in their prime to be more proactive.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Hung, whose presidential nomination was rescinded by the KMT in October last year following controversy over remarks she made — such as advocating “one China, same interpretation” — said that she felt “exhausted” after her stint as presidential candidate, but added that the KMT would be “swept away like dust” if it fails to reform.
On Monday, KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) officially stepped down from the KMT’s chairmanship to assume responsibility for the party’s crushing defeat in the presidential and legislative elections on Saturday.
A KMT source said the party initially planned to have people interested in running for the post pick up registration forms tomorrow or Saturday, after which they would have 10 days to collect endorsement signatures from qualified KMT members.
The date for registration was tentatively scheduled for Jan. 31, with election day set for Feb. 27, the source said.
However, following discussions at a meeting of the KMT Central Standing Committee yesterday afternoon, the election was delayed from Feb. 26 to Mar. 26.
Political observers have speculated the delay is a bid to forestall Hung’s chairmanship run by buying time for the party’s establishment to change voter qualification rules, and thereby dilute her electoral base with an infusion of younger and more centrist members.
Other people said to be likely to run for the post include Vice President Wu Den-yi (吳敦義) and former Taipei mayor and KMT vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
Nantou-based politicians and grassroots KMT members on Tuesday mobilized on social media to vote for Wu in an online poll for potential KMT chairperson candidates, a move that implies Wu might launch a bid for the position.
The poll, held by the Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN), a media outlet believed to be influential in the pan-blue camp, asked users to vote on who they think would be most likely to change the KMT if they were chairperson.
The field consisted of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), Wu, Hau, Hung and former Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強).
People are allowed to vote once every hour.
As early as Tuesday morning — the apparent opening time of the poll — Wu’s KMT supporters, particularly those based in Nantou, began sharing the link to the poll through Line, a popular messaging app, calling on other Wu supporters to vote.
As of yesterday afternoon, Hung was the frontrunner, with Wu in the second place.
Wu’s supporters in Nantou said he is ideally placed for party leadership as he had avoided the controversy surrounding the KMT’s replacing of Hung with Chu as presidential candidate, in addition to scoring a “home-run” victory in Nantou, where he helped to re-elect KMT legislators Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華).
In related developments, KMT Central Standing Committee member Yao Chiang-lin (姚江臨) has called for amendments to party rules on candidate qualifications for chairpersonship.
The party rules require chairperson candidates to have served in the Central Standing Committee and the Central Evaluation and Disciplinary Committee. Yao proposed to lift such rules to broaden the pool of candidates.
No conclusion was reached at the Central Standing Committee meeting yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by