Media personality and Broadcasting Corp of China (中廣) chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) yesterday said he would seek the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) nomination to run in the 2024 presidential election.
Jaw, a former lawmaker who in 1993 left the KMT with several other members to form the New Party, on Monday last week said that he had submitted a request to restore his KMT membership, and that he would not rule out entering this year’s race for KMT chairperson.
Jaw said he was also open to making a bid for city mayor or county commissioner in next year’s local elections, or appearing on the ticket in the 2024 presidential election.
Photo: CNA
He said that former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who was the KMT presidential candidate in last year’s election, at a meeting in September last year urged him to run for KMT chairman.
Asked by reporters in Taipei whether the early announcement of his interest in running in the KMT presidential primary was aimed at blocking a possible bid by former KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), Jaw said: “No one can block anyone... [Chu] will still run if he wants to.”
Chu, a former New Taipei City mayor, represented the KMT in the 2016 presidential election, which he lost to then-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
He is also widely seen as a potential candidate for KMT chairman.
Asked whether he had discussed his decision with former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT, Jaw said: “I did not discuss it with anyone.”
Jaw said he felt the Tsai administration was not doing a good job.
“I think I have a chance, and I think I have a lot of ideas to make Taiwan better, to make Taiwan greater,” he said.
Asked whether he would consider being a vice presidential candidate, Jaw said: “Probably not.”
KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) in a statement on Wednesday last week said that Jaw’s request to return to the KMT had been approved.
Jaw would be appointed to the KMT’s Central Advisory Committee after the Lunar New Year holiday, Chiang said.
According to KMT regulations, a party member must have served in the Central Advisory Committee or Central Standing Committee to run in the chairperson election.
Additional reporting by CNA
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not