Lin Hsing-er (林杏兒), head of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Department of Youth Affairs, yesterday called for an end to infighting after former KMT secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) joined party members opposed to the reinstatement of Independent Legislator Fu Kun-chi’s (傅崐萁) membership.
King in a Pop Radio interview said that Fu was “like a time bomb,” adding that the decision regarding his reinstatement should not be made until the party elects a new chairperson and Central Standing Committee members on March 7.
Reinstating Fu, who was expelled from the party in 2009, would be a “hasty and wrong decision,” King on Monday told a news conference held by a group of younger KMT members, including Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Lin, who is also on the KMT’s Central Standing Committee, urged younger party members not to become “puppets” in what she described as a continuation of the infighting that had damaged the party in the past.
Infighting has re-emerged just as the KMT is about to reform, Lin said.
“Do not leave the previous generation’s fighting to our generation,” she said. “Our generation hopes for and needs change.”
“The DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] should be the first to oppose Fu Kun-chi’s return to the KMT,” Lin said. “But oddly, it was KMT people who came out to stop it.”
“Right now, the KMT’s primary battleground is in the Legislative Yuan,” she said. “We need to unite more forces.”
Lin asked why the party would close its doors to Fu “when the KMT is most in need.”
“Would it be bad for the KMT to have one more [legislative] seat?” she asked.
“The edges of [the KMT’s] knives should be pointed outward,” she said, calling for party unity amid plans for reform.
KMT Central Committee member Chen Mao-chia (陳茂嘉) echoed Lin’s call, saying: “It is the KMT that needs Fu Kun-chi and not Fu Kun-chi who needs the KMT.”
The KMT’s Party Disciplinary Committee was scheduled to review Fu’s case yesterday, but the KMT in a statement on Monday said that the meeting would be canceled because a quorum would not be reached.
Additional reporting by CNA
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS