Discontent in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) with KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday boiled to the surface, with former minister of transportation and communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) saying that Hung wants to send “the KMT to the mortuary.”
Yeh, who was an adviser to Hung’s presidential campaign in 2015 before Hung’s forced replacement by then-KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), said on Facebook that Hung allowed the KMT’s Huang Fu-hsing military veterans’ branch to sway the party’s chairperson election.
“According to party member numbers published by the KMT, out of 880,000 registered members, only about 220,000 have voting rights in the chairperson election, of which 197,000 are either older than 65 and have been party members for at least 40 years — including 170,000 Huang Fu-hsing members — or are members of low-income households,” Yeh said. “Both groups are exempt from paying party fees to have voting rights.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“In other words, the KMT chairperson election will be completely decided by Huang Fu-hsing,” he added, asking why there have been “less than 30,000 members willing to pay party fees” during Hung’s tenure as chairwoman.
“Are you really taking the KMT to the mortuary?” Yeh asked Hung.
It was not the first time Yeh has taken Hung to task for what he said was the impending demise of the party.
On Dec. 22, he said on Facebook that the KMT “is being pushed from the intensive care unit to hospice care and will be sent to the mortuary in no time,” sharing an article from the Chinese-language United Daily News that said the party was “narrowing its road, with an intraparty consensus nowhere to be seen.”
The following day, he added: “Chairwoman Hung, please do not complain about other people not listening to your orders. Please think about why they fail to do so.”
KMT Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) fought back yesterday, saying on Facebook: “No wonder [former president] Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) poll numbers were in the mortuary; it was because he made someone like Yeh the minister of transportation and communications.”
“Yeh relied on the KMT to indulge on luxuries, but he did not even pay a NT$2,000 special party fee,” Tsai said, referring to a donation scheme employed by the party to raise funds.
There are only 65,967 Huang Fu-hsing members, of which 60,480 are older than 65 and have been party members for at least 40 years, he said.
“Can Yeh not read numbers? Was his IQ [intelligence quotient] sent to the mortuary?” Tsai said. “No wonder he was seriously slapped on the face when he undertook financial reforms of Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp.”
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Taiwan’s three major international carriers are increasing booking fees, with EVA Airways having already increased the charge to US$28 per flight segment from US$25, while China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines are set to follow suit. Booking fees are charged by airlines through a global distribution system (GDS) and passed on to passengers. Carriers that apply the fees include CAL, EVA, Starlux and Tigerair Taiwan. A GDS is a computerized network operated by a company that connects airlines with travel agents and ticketing platforms, allowing reservations to be made and processed in real time. Major players include Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. EVA Air began
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS