Widening the fissure between the two opposition parties, a ranking KMT official offered to resign yesterday in a gesture of protest against the party's plan to dump its own candidate in favor of an independent in the race for the Kaohsiung mayoralty.
KMT lawmaker James Chen (陳健治), who has fought with the PFP over the joint nominee for the Koahsiung mayoral race, told reporters he has offered to step down as the party's head of Organization and Development Committee.
He spent an hour meeting with KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Though saying he may yet resign, the KMT official set out for a trip to China yesterday afternoon.
In the letter, Chen asked the party to relieve him from the duty as director-general of its organizational affairs division. He also requested a leave of absence, effective immediately untill the party finds a replacement.
Chen reiterated his reservations about the party's intent to back former interior minister Chang Po-ya (
"It makes no sense for the KMT to abandon its own flag-bearer, Huang Jun-ying (黃俊英), and throw its weight behind an independent," he said. "The party should at least give Huang a chance to demonstrate his muscle."
Speculations abound that the KMT and PFP are nearing a final agreement to make Chang their joint candidate, thanks to PFP Chairman James Soong's (
PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (
The two opposition parties are expected to make known their final decision in a week's time.
"I offered to resign mainly because I don't want to be a stumbling block to KMT-PFP cooperation," Chen said.
PFP legislative whip Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) has accused him of seeking to undermine the opposition alliance after he questioned Soong's wisdom in endorsing Chang Po-ya's candidacy.
Liu called Chen's loyalty into question, saying the KMT official was close to former president Lee Teng-hui (
Brushing aside the criticism, Chen said sarcastically, "perhaps the KMT should consult the PFP before staffing its organization department."
He again urged his party to heed the will of Kaohsiung residents when approaching the matter. Many of them look down upon a carpetbagger, the KMT official said, referring to Chang, who recently moved her residency to the southern city to qualify for the elections.
Chen, however, added he would give full support to any candidate agreed on by the two parties through a judicious mechanism.
Lien, though eager to placate Chen, reportedly told him the KMT should not allow self-serving concerns to influence its decisions.
The gesture, widely seen as a tacit nod to Chang's candidacy, came under fire from another independent contender, Shih Ming-teh (
Shih, himself wooing opposition voters, warned the two parties that they risk being inconsistent if they decide to embrace Chang.
"How can they convince their supporters to vote for Chang, who their lawmakers struck down as nominee for Examination Yuan vice president?" he said. "A turnabout would lend credence to the belief that both Lien and Soong have yet to outgrow the setback at the presidential polls two years ago."
The two opposition leaders have made unseating incumbent Mayor Frank Hsieh (
Though without political affiliation, Chang has outdone all other challengers in opinion surveys.
See editorial:
Is political loyalty an oxymoron?
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
RSS