Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said yesterday that the KMT, which won more than two-thirds of the legislative seats in Saturday's elections, needs to be in full control before it can shoulder all responsibility for the nation's success or failure.
Wu told a senior staff meeting yesterday morning that the KMT's rival, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), had on several occasions emphasized the importance of a single party shouldering all administrative responsibility, adding that the party with a legislative majority was in the best position to play this role.
Communication committee head Huang Yu-cheng (
Wu said that, according to the DPP's logic, voters should support the KMT in the March presidential poll.
The party secured an overwhelming majority in the first legislative poll under the new "single district, two-vote" system. It won 57 of the 73 district seats, four of the six Aboriginal seats and 20 of the 34 legislator-at-large seats. The DPP suffered a crushing defeat, winning just 27 seats in total.
The absolute majority the KMT enjoys has prompted concern in some circles that the nation could return to an authoritarian era.
Huang said that Wu had cautioned party members to be humble after the overwhelming victory in Saturday's poll, adding that the party would be under close public scrutiny.
The chairman also vowed to go all out to ensure KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (
Meanwhile, KMT caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (
Kuo was asked for comment on the results of two surveys published in the Chinese-language United Daily News and China Times yesterday.
The United Daily News survey said that the support rate for Ma and running mate Vincent Siew (
The China Times survey put the support rate for the KMT candidates at 51 percent and that of their DPP rivals at 20 percent.
Kuo said the KMT had to be cautious lest the DPP appeal to voter sympathy.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), a KMT member, expressed a similar opinion, urging voters to support the KMT to "stabilize the nation's political situation."
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)