Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday said that she would resign at the end of the month.
Hung made the announcement during the weekly KMT Central Standing Committee meeting over which she presided, after thanking her colleagues for supporting her over the “toughest” year in the party’s history, referring to the party’s massive defeat in last year’s presidential and legislative elections.
Hung said that she would step down as KMT chairwoman on June 30 — even though her term is set to expire on Aug. 20.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Hung is on leave until June 30 and yesterday appointed KMT Central Committee Deputy Chairman Lin Cheng-tse (林政則) as acting party chairman.
The announcement came after she and KMT chairman-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) on Friday last week settled a weeks-long dispute and agreed to jointly nominate candidates for the KMT Central Committee elections.
She urged Wu to assume office as soon as possible so that he could make appointments to fill vacancies in KMT headquarters.
“We are very perplexed by the transition necessary for settling the KMT’s affairs. I hope that chairman-elect Wu Den-yih would make suitable appointments and complete the transition soon,” she said.
She said the staffing of the KMT Administration and Management Committee, which manages the KMT’s assets, is particularly urgent, as the KMT is entangled in several lawsuits with the Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, and numerous issues about the KMT’s assets need clarification.
She said that after last month’s KMT chairperson election, she had heard rumors that some KMT members wanted her to step down earlier than scheduled — which she had been prepared to do with the proviso that the KMT’s national congress be pushed forward from Aug. 20 to July 1, so that the transition of unfinished tasks could also be carried out sooner.
Hung said she hoped Wu could aspire to greater achievements than she did and lead the KMT to a brighter future.
Hung asked Lin to chair the meeting in her place and walked out, declining requests from some committee members to shake hands.
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