On May 18, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) leadership shocked party members by nominating former premier Simon Chang (張善政) as its Taoyuan mayoral candidate. In doing so, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) caused another political firestorm, again triggering tension within the party.
Chu has been pulling this kind of stunt with alarming regularity, in a sign of the terminal decline of the Chinese regime in exile.
This particular maneuver consisted of three layers:
First, Chu’s appointment of the former premier — who was also on the KMT’s presidential ticket in 2020 as former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) running mate — as the party’s Taoyuan mayoral candidate was met with protests from the party’s other hopefuls.
Former Taipei City councilor Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) was so determined to win the nomination that he resigned as councilor on May 11 and bought a house in Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山) during the primary. KMT legislators Lu Ming-che (魯明哲) and Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲) also expressed their willingness to run in the primary.
Chu said that his only criterion for the KMT’s nomination is determing who can “make Taoyuan better.” Did his abrupt nomination of Chang mean that the others were incapable of improving the city?
Chang said that he was running for mayor to do something for Taiwan after witnessing a shortage of COVID-19 rapid test kits across the nation. It sounded as if he were running for president, but Chu had said the party was seeking the candidate who can make Taoyuan better. Clearly, the two are in cahoots, trying to hoodwink the public.
Next were the calls for unity. Addressing the KMT members still reeling from the shock of the announcement, Chu urged members to unite to win the election, so as to “make Taoyuan better.”
Meanwhile, KMT Secretary-General Justin Huang (黃健庭) said that Chang was chosen because he was an outstanding candidate. This kind of comment was as disgusting as former vice president Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) praise of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as “a man among men.”
To assuage disgruntled party members in Taoyuan, Chu, Huang and Chang began a journey of apology and communication.
Chang wrote online that he had called former KMT chairman Wo Po-hsiung (吳伯雄), a former Taoyuan County commissioner, saying that Wu has cared about Taoyuan his entire life, and that he could feel Wu’s high expectations for him during their conversation. It seems the KMT’s long-term “flattery culture” has not disappeared.
The final move was to call for the resistance of “external forces.” Apparently, party unity and flattery culture are not enough: Resisting external forces is just as important to maintain internal harmony.
During a news conference, Chu and Chang not only apologized for the controversy over the nomination, but also dragged the Democratic Progressive Party into the mess, trying to gloss over the frustration they had caused among the KMT faithful and trying to frame the development as striking fear into the heart of the governing party.
In 2015, during his previous stint as KMT chairman, Chu caused a political firestorm by unprecedentedly replacing the KMT’s official presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) with himself. At that time, Hsing Yun (星雲), founder of the Fo Guang Shan Monastery, even said that the party was marching toward destruction. Taiwanese should accelerate the party’s destruction at the polls.
Chen Ching-kuen is an assistant professor.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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