Former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday pledged to establish a just, efficient and harmonious government if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regains power again, as he announced his decision to run in the party’s chairperson election.
Wu made the announcement at a news conference in Taipei, which was attended by KMT lawmakers, local elected representatives and representatives from the military and the business community.
In a speech marked by praises for former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and Republic of China (ROC) founder Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), Wu said he decided to throw his hat into the ring because the party, whose cultivation allowed him to climb from the position of Taipei City councilor to vice president, is in distress.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Speaking about his 40-year political career, Wu was briefly overcome by emotion when he talked about how the publication of his opinion pieces in prominent newspapers during his sophomore year at National Taiwan University led to a meeting with Chiang in 1968.
“In the autumn of 1972, when Chiang served as premier and KMT chairman, he asked then-China Youth Corps chief secretary Lee Huan (李煥) to inform me that per Chiang’s instruction, the KMT planned to nominate a number of talented young Taiwanese for a Taipei city council by-election the next year, to allow the party to take root on the island,” Wu said.
“Lee told me that Chiang personally wrote down my name on a piece of paper,” Wu added.
Wu said for the KMT to regain control of the government, which is the primary goal of any political party, it must be an effective opposition party and take to heart the needs of the public.
Laying out four objectives for the KMT should it come to power again, Wu said all party members should make a concerted effort to establish the most efficient and friendly government possible, while working to ensure economic prosperity and equal distribution of wealth.
“Third, we should rebuild a just and harmonious society, where amicability exists between labor and capital, the younger and older generations, men and women, as well as concerned parties in the recent debates about legalizing same-sex marriage,” Wu said.
Despite calling for respect for the survival and development of “people whose sexual orientation is different from that of the majority,” the former vice president questioned the necessity to alter traditional family values that the majority has adhered to for years.
The final goal is to maintain peaceful development of cross-strait ties, Wu said, adding that it hinges on two vital foundations: the so-called “1992 consensus” and the principle of “no unification, no independence and no use of force.”
The “1992 consensus” refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and Beijing that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means. Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) said in 2006 that he had made up the term in 2000.
Asked whether he intends to vie for the top office in 2020, Wu was evasive, saying it was too soon to talk about candidates for the next presidential race, because only by winning next year’s local elections would the KMT stand a chance of regaining power in 2020.
He also shrugged off criticism that his candidacy in the KMT’s chairperson race on May 20 would be detrimental to party unity, as he would be running against KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
“An election does not impede unity; an unfair and unjust one does,” he said.
A bilateral relations fact sheet on Taiwan-US relations published on the US Department of State Web site was recently updated to remove statements saying that it acknowledged Beijing’s “one China” position, and that the US does not support Taiwanese independence. The fact sheet is produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. A previous version of the document opened with the statement: “The United States and Taiwan enjoy a robust unofficial relationship.” It said the US acknowledged “the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China,” and said that the US “does
INDIRECT MESSAGE? Chinese planes might have entered Taiwan’s ADIZ to take part in drills with a carrier group that was about 500km off the east coast, an analyst said The Chinese military yesterday said it had conducted live-fire drills in waters and airspace off Taiwan’s eastern and southwestern coasts from Friday to Sunday to test and upgrade its joint combat capabilities. The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) posted the news on Chinese messaging platform WeChat. Over the past few days, authorities in Taiwan and Japan have observed deployments of Chinese planes and ships near Taiwan from a PLA carrier group of five destroyers, a frigate and a resupply ship led by the Liaoning aircraft carrier. The Japanese Ministry of Defense first announced on Monday last week that
China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday. Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there. Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay
Police are investigating the death of a Formosan black bear discovered on Tuesday buried near an industrial road in Nantou County, with initial evidence indicating that it was shot accidentally by a hunter. The bear had been caught in wildlife traps at least five times before, three times since 2020. Codenamed No. 711, the bear received extensive media coverage last year after it was discovered trapped twice in less than two months in the Taichung mountains. After its most recent ensnarement last month, the bear was released in the Dandashan (丹大山) area in Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義). However, officials became concerned after the
RSS