The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has announced that starting in October, it would begin twice-weekly live broadcasts on Facebook to broaden the party’s media presence.
A source within the party said that KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has been pushing for greater use of social media since taking office, to foster greater interest in the party among young people.
The plan is to invite legislators, Internet celebrities and industry experts whose views align with the party to talk on a variety of subjects, with broadcasts scheduled twice a week, the source said, adding that pan-green activists might also be invited to discussions on larger social issues.
Party spokespeople are to take turns hosting the discussions, the source said, adding that several people invited by KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Lee Ming-hsien (李明賢) to act as hosts have already expressed support.
Several of those expected to appear in the broadcasts, including Lee, are to run in municipal and county elections next year, the source said.
They added that, aside from expanding its young support base, the party hopes a bigger social media presence could improve its ability to supervise government activity.
The party currently has roughly 500,000 followers on its official Facebook page, about 10 percent of whom regularly interact with posts.
The party expects to reach the 50,000 active followers with its broadcasts, the source said, adding that it hopes to reach even more viewers by posting videos to YouTube following each broadcast.
While unable to give specifics about the broadcasts or content, the source said the party had already researched its target audience and that content would be specific to what interests that audience.
Broadcasts are to last one hour each and followers can make suggestions through a voting system, which will be taken into account, they added.
The source said that the KMT has greater interaction with Facebook followers than the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), even though the DPP has about 100,000 more followers.
The KMT has finished building a broadcast studio in their headquarters that will be used for the live broadcasts, the source said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods