Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said yesterday it was important to keep party discipline after Hsinchu County Council Speaker Chang Pi-chin (張碧琴) was stripped of her party membership, adding that he would spare no effort to win the local government chief elections in December.
The party’s Central Standing Committee yesterday approved the revoking of Chang’s party membership after the KMT’s Hsinchu chapter expelled her on Monday for registering for the county commissioner election.
“In addition to affection and morality, discipline is also important in maintaining the 100-year-old KMT. Without discipline, the party would collapse,” Wu said while addressing a farewell party in his honor at party headquarters.
PHOTO: CNA
Wu will hand over the party chairmanship to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Oct. 17.
In response to Chang’s case and several pan-blue splits in counties as the election approaches, Wu said taking disciplinary action against those who violated party regulations was necessary for the sake of party unity.
KMT Secretary-General Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) said the party would take disciplinary action against any member who left the party to run in elections or violated party regulations to campaign for certain candidates.
The party’s Disciplinary Committee will take action against Hsinchu County Commissioner Cheng Yung-chin (鄭永金), who announced his support for Chang and campaigned for her, he said.
Disciplinary action will also be taken against other party members, including Hualien County Deputy Commissioner Chang Chih-ming (張志明), who recently withdrew from the KMT to run as an independent candidate for Hualien County commissioner.
Meanwhile, the Central Standing Committee approved the party’s nomination of Yunlin Technology University associate professor Wu Wei-chi (吳威志) as the party’s candidate for the Yunlin County Commissioner election.
Wu Wei-chi, who was Ma’s preferred candidate, said he would work hard to secure victory in the election.
The party confirmed Wu’s nomination on Tuesday night after Chang Li-shan (張麗善) withdrew her candidacy last month because of a split among local factions.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by