A KMT elder and former diplomat cut his wrist during a meeting yesterday to protest the party's failure to expel former party chairman Lee Teng-hui (
The drastic move by Konsin Shah (夏功權), a former representative to the US between 1979 and 1981, took place during a meeting of the KMT Central Advisory Council.
"Many members have said they would kill themselves if the opposition camp fails to retake the presidency in two and a half years," Shah, 81, told the council, composed mainly of members who fled China after the civil war. "I may not be alive by then, so I would like to set an example today."
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMESN
The octogenarian then slipped a blade out of his briefcase and slit his left wrist at the podium, saying, "Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) must unite the party and handle the proposal to expel Lee for the sake of justice."
The suicide attempt threw the assembly into disarray.
Chang Che-chen (
Shah was rushed to the nearby National Taiwan University Hospital and was in stable condition.
As before, the KMT chair declined to address the Lee issue to avoid alienating Lee supporters.
It is generally believed the DPP would not have won the presidency last year if two splinter groups, the People First Party and the New Party, had not broken away from the KMT.
In addition, some KMT mem-bers such as Shah attributed the DPP victory in part to Lee's secret backing. The alleged collusion led hundreds of grassroots members to besiege the KMT headquarters for days after the election debacle, pressing for Lee's downfall.
Shah, who received his law degree from Washington DC's Georgetown University, held several diplomatic posts, including ambassador to Uruguay and New Zealand.
Earlier, Shah and fellow member Liang Su-yung (梁肅戎) filed a joint complaint with the KMT disciplinary department, accusing Lee of betraying the party.
They cited as evidence Lee's public statements that he would stump for legislative candidates from the Taiwan Solidarity Union, formed primarily by former ranking KMT members sympathetic to the former president. Shah maintained that if Lee wasn't expelled, the KMT would collapse within two years.
Echoing Shah's apprehension, Wang Tso-yung (
Wang, who advised Lee to join the KMT, said he regrets the move as the biggest mistake he ever made in his life.
Ironically, the Central Advisory Council, created by Lee to appease the KMT old guard, has been the main venue for Lee-bashing.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS