The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) needs to be changed “from the root,” former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) agreed yesterday.
In a 40-minute live-stream hosted on Chou’s Facebook page ahead of the party’s chairperson election on Saturday, the two men, who were interviewed while working in a garden, were asked whether weeding was “like reform.”
“Yes,” Chou said. “Change must start from the root.”
“When you are weeding, you must remove the roots,” said Hau, who has served as KMT vice chairman three times and is up against KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) in the election.
“The same goes for reform. You have to solve the fundamental problem,” he said.
The KMT’s “fundamental problem” is its culture, and while some parts of it should be kept, others need to be changed, he said.
In the past, there was only “one voice” in the KMT — that of the chairperson, but the chairperson “is not a saint,” he said. “The party chairperson also makes mistakes.”
With a collective leadership that considers multiple opinions, there would be “few chances of making mistakes,” he added.
In an online interview on Saturday, Hau proposed the KMT post a representative to China.
Asked about former KMT Central Committee member Vincent Hsu (徐正文), whose party membership was suspended over suspicions that he altered the passenger list for the first charter flight of Taiwanese evacuated from Wuhan, China, last month, Hau on Saturday said that “all KMT members must safeguard the party’s image.”
“Those who act without authority and damage the party’s image should be disciplined,” he said.
Although the KMT is an opposition party, it would do its part to help Taiwanese living or working in China, so it “should have a party representative there,” he said.
The KMT also needed to tackle its public image of being “old and pro-China,” and should prohibit members from benefitting personally when handling cross-strait affairs, he said.
On the question of the KMT’s position on unification and independence, Hau said that “defending the Republic of China, opposing Taiwanese independence and rejecting the ‘one country, two systems’” framework proposed by China are the party’s core ideals.
The KMT lags far behind the Democratic Progressive Party in its social media presence, which could seriously limit its development unless something is done, he said.
Only by embracing social media could the party better connect with the public, particularly younger people, Hau said.
Saturday’s by-election is to select a successor to former chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who resigned following the KMT’s defeats in the elections on Jan. 11.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS