The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) failed to elect its first-ever caucus general convener after the two candidates, Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) and Apollo Chen (陳學聖), tied in yesterday’s vote.
The two candidates received 14 votes each from 29 KMT lawmakers who showed up for the election, with one invalid vote and six lawmakers abstaining.
KMT Central Policy Committee chief executive director Alex Tsai (蔡正元), who presided over the election, said KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) has high expectations for the improvement of autonomy within the party caucus and of its “combative power,” adding that while in the past the work of the KMT caucus whip had been shared by the committee chief director — a position that had been doubled by a lawmaker until Tsai — and the caucus secretary-general, with an elected general convener, the autonomy of the caucus would be improved.
Hung last month said that the person elected by the caucus “would be the deputy executive director of the party’s Central Policy Committee,” a position that would be under the leadership of the party-assigned policy committee’s chief executive director.
According to a report by the Chinese-language United Daily News earlier this week, Sufin said that he would not take the position of committee deputy executive director if elected, but would coordinate with Tsai.
“We are still a team; it would not signify an opposing stance against the party headquarters,” he said.
According to local media, party caucus secretary-general Lin Te-fu (林德福) had Hung’s support before he said that he would not run for general convener on Wednesday, the last day of the registration for candidacy.
The United Daily News cited an unnamed KMT lawmaker as saying that with Lin opting out, Tsai’s influence would be kept outside of the caucus.
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