The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has called on members to pay “a special party fee” of NT$2,000 per person in order to “save [the party] from demise,” with KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said to be ready to pay her share tomorrow to set an example.
The KMT said it would launch events calling for the “special party fee” to protect its survival and a “NT$1,000 donation” drive on the eve of Retrocession Day on Tuesday “in order to defend the Republic of China’s (ROC) constitutional system of freedom, democracy and rule of law.”
Hung is to lead the party’s central leadership, city and county chapter officials and Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) military veterans’ branch officials to pay the special party fees tomorrow while attending a “safeguard the ROC Constitution and donate NT$1,000” event that is to be held in New Taipei City tomorrow night, which is public-oriented, as opposed to the call for special party fees made to members.
The party said it hopes that members and the public can support the KMT to “hold out the hand of justice” and “check a Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] regime that is marching toward fascism and green terror.”
The special party fee has been set at a minimum of NT$2,000, although members can donate as much as they want, the party said.
Members who contribute during a stipulated period — from Tuesday through Dec. 25 — would receive a letter from the party chairwoman and a reprint of the certificate for the Revolutionary Party when it was founded by Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) in 1914 following the failed Second Revolution against Yuan Shikai (袁世凱) in 1913, “which is to symbolize the spirit of the [ROC’s] founding father in the Second Revolution by supporting the KMT in supervising an unjust and unconstitutional regime,” the KMT said.
Members of the public who participate in the NT$1,000 donation activity would be thanked with a reprint of the “receipt of the just pay of the Chinese Revolutionary Army” published by the Tongmenghui in 1911, a year before the founding of the ROC, which was issued so that revolutionary army soldiers could collect their pay.
It has been reported that some party workers have complained that the “special party fees” campaign calls for “reluctant donations” from party members, and have asked party headquarters to pay them their salaries before they donate.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hu Wen-chi (胡文琦) said that the event is simply an expression of the idea that the KMT can “save the party ourselves” and is not compulsory, adding that there would be no consequences for members who do not make contributions.
Additional Reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
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