The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should open the door to the younger generation for nominations for December's legislative election instead of allowing just the incumbent legislators to run, a group of up-and-coming KMT city and county councilors said yesterday.
About a dozen city and county councilors, led by Taitung County Council Speaker Wu Chun-li (吳俊立), visited KMT deputy chairman and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) at the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning to talk about party reform and the legislative election.
Some of the visiting councilors are prepared to run in the legislative election but their nominations are uncertain, as the KMT is already facing the threat of losing several seats in the upcoming election.
"The legislative election is a major event and young people with passion and ideals should be allowed to run in the election. Although the old tree trunk needs to stay evergreen, there should be space for new branches to develop," Pingtung County Councilor Yeh Shou-shan (葉壽山) said.
"It is acceptable that the incumbent legislators are allowed to run for reelection, but the young people should also be given a chance," Yeh said.
"If we make conservative nominations, voters will respond conservatively in the legislative election. The young people have spoken and the party should refrain from stigmatizing the young," Hsinchu City Councilor Cheng Chen-chien (鄭正鈐) said.
Meanwhile, Wang said that the major consideration for nomination for the legislative election would be the candidate's potential to win the election.
"After all, the legislative election is not just for practice or rehearsal," Wang said.
Wang also said that if there was competition between the incumbent legislators and the newcomers, the party would try to resolve it via negotiation. The party would also suggest that incumbent legislators who were not confident of reelection should withdraw from the race.
Later, KMT Deputy Chairman and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
While Ma only made a short stop as a polite gesture to the visitors, Wu talked about the peaceful coexistence of the old and the young in the party.
"Despite all the faults that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) may have, it is good at training and relying on its younger members, and that's what the KMT should learn from the DPP," Wu said.
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