The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Disciplinary Committee yesterday voted to revoke the membership of former KMT Youth League secretary-general Lee Zheng-hao (李正皓) and media commentator Cheng Pei-feng (鄭佩芬) for criticizing Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the party’s presidential candidate, and other party members.
If the KMT Central Standing Committee confirms the decision, Lee and Cheng would become the fourth and fifth members to be expelled for making negative remarks about Han.
The KMT has already expelled former KMT Central Advisory Committee member Chen Hung-chang (陳宏昌), former Kaohsiung County commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) and Ao Po-sheng (敖博勝) for criticizing Han.
Lee last month on a TV talk show accused Han of not devoting enough time to his presidential campaign.
The KMT New Taipei City chapter recommended that the party expel Lee if he criticized the mayor again.
Since then, Lee has continued to defame Han and the party’s legislative candidates, the Disciplinary Committee said in a statement.
Cheng had also defamed the party and many of its members, it said, adding that her remarks about certain KMT members already planning to run for president in 2024 were untrue.
Cheng on Friday last week said on a TV talk show that many KMT heavyweights are uninterested in supporting Han’s presidential campaign because they hope to run for president themselves in 2024, when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would have to step down.
If the KMT had nominated the right candidate, it would have had a greater chance of winning the election on Jan. 11, she added.
Lee yesterday compared Han to the king in The Emperor’s New Clothes and said that the child who points out the truth is being punished.
“Will expelling me for a non-existent offense help Han’s election campaign?” he wrote on Facebook.
What got him expelled was “KYT” — a wordplay on the initials of Han’s first name — he wrote.
“I will not leave the pan-blue camp and will always remain a supporter of the Republic of China,” he wrote.
He would continue to be the crow that warns of disasters, he said.
“People can throw rocks at me and do all they can to make me leave. They might succeed in frightening the crow away, but not stopping the disaster,” he wrote.
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