All Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates running for local government positions in the Nov. 24 election are to gather in Taipei today to officially launch their campaigns.
The local election results are seen as a significant indicator for success in the presidential elections, and the KMT is sparing no effort to return to power in 2020, the party said.
The KMT has downsized its campaign events and is encouraging candidates to leave party chapters and directly engage constituents, as the party faces financial difficulties, party sources added.
The Executive Yuan’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee in 2016 froze the assets of Central Investment Co and Hsinyutai Corp, worth NT$15.4 billion and NT$200 million (US$503 million and US$6.55 million) respectively, after the two companies were designated as affiliated with the KMT.
The KMT is contesting the committee’s administrative order in an ongoing lawsuit.
KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) absence from the limelight over the past few weeks was said to be so he could concentrate on behind-the-scenes management, including a combined effort by Wu and former Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to organize a rally for KMT Taichung mayoral candidate Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) on Monday last week.
Party headquarters and local KMT chapters would act in concert, with chapters holding regular meetings to stay on top of electoral affairs and the headquarters thinking up ways to support the chapters, the party said.
KMT Vice Chairman Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) has been tasked with managing events nationwide, the party said, adding that it aims to mobilize at least 200 supporters for each event to help bolster party morale.
Tseng has overseen more than 10 support rallies and has devoted himself to increasing party solidarity and unifying members behind common goals, party sources said.
At an event on Aug. 19 — when the KMT National Congress is scheduled to meet — Wu is to confer flags on all candidates to boost their morale.
The party’s propaganda and information apartments are also working at full speed and a campaign Web site with all the candidates’ programs is to be launched in the coming week, sources said, adding that it would emphasize unpopular local and national policies.
Meanwhile, the KMT said its Central Standing Committee’s road show is to begin with a meeting in Taichung on July 25.
The party’s grand strategy is to consolidate its presence in Taipei and New Taipei City, it said, adding that it would also heavily focus on central Taiwan.
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