Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday hurled insults at KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) team and cross-strait policy platform at a solidarity rally held for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson candidate Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) campaign.
Ma took aim at a recent controversy, when it was revealed that “dummy members,” had been signed to the party en masse, saying that the practice “used to be the Democratic Progressive Party’s trick, not the KMT’s.”
Addressing accusations that members with organized crime backgrounds joined the party, Ma said the reports have had a terrible effect on the party, and such “pests” must be eradicated for the KMT to regain its “sunshine image.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The KMT has “a clear understanding of right and wrong, upholds morality and takes its connections with party members seriously, characteristics that have arisen from the party’s 100-year history,” he said.
“However, there are some party comrades that have been ranting at their own brethren; there are even reports alleging that certain party members plan to launch a political vendetta against me, accusing me of being to blame for devastating the party and the nation,” Ma said.
One of the “comrades” Ma was referring to is understood to be KMT Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元), who has been involved in a series of heated spats and exchanges with Ma’s office, the most recent regarding Ma’s acknowledgment that Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) should be held accountable for the 228 Incident.
Tsai responded that then-Taiwan governor Chen Yi (陳儀), who ordered police and military action against protesters, was less corrupt than Ma.
The vendetta that Ma mentioned is believed to relate to forums organized by Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), a close aide of Hung’s and the principal of the “Sun Yat-sen School” set up by Hung.
The school, launched at the beginning of this month, was said to be “for the appraisal of past KMT leaders and their achievements and misdeeds.”
The school evaluated former presidents Chiang Kai-shek on March 2, Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) on March 9 and Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) on Thursday.
Ma is scheduled to be discussed on Thursday next week.
Ma also repeated that the so-called “1992” consensus has benefited Taiwan greatly and was “not a ‘consensus’ between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party, but one reached, under the direction of former president Lee Teng-hui, between Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.”
“One China, different interpretations” has garnered a high level of support, he said, adding that it should not be “arbitrarily overlooked, revised or abolished.”
“It should not be changed to [Hung’s] ‘one China, same interpretation,’ which has left many of our supporters disconcerted,” Ma said.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding reached during the cross-strait talks in 1992 that both Taiwan and China acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.
In 2006 former Mainland Affairs Council minister Su Chi (蘇起) admitted he made up the term in 2000, before the KMT handed power to the Democratic Progressive Party.
TECH PROGRAM: A US official said that an important part of the delegation’s trip would be to meet with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co executives The US is to send officials in charge of chip development to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to promote cooperation in the global semiconductor supply chain, the US Department of Commerce said on Tuesday. Chips Program Office Director Michael Schmidt announced the visit, which marks the first time officials from the office are to visit the three nations since it was set up in September last year. “As semiconductors and technologies continue to evolve, the United States will keep working with allies and partners to develop coordinated strategies to ensure that malign actors cannot use the latest technologies to undermine our collective
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with counties that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
ORIGIN UNKNOWN: The Leofoo Village Theme Park and Taipei Zoo have accounted for their baboons, as authorities continue a 12-day capture attempt Authorities in Taoyuan are searching for a non-native baboon, possibly of the chacma species, that has been spotted several times in the city’s Pingjhen District (平鎮) over the past 12 days, and was most recently seen in coastal Sinwu District (新屋). The baboon was first spotted near a local factory on March 10 in central Taoyuan, Jhensing Borough Warden Huang Chih-chieh (黃志杰) said. Huang said he requested the Leofoo Village Theme Park’s help after a second sighting on Saturday. In other sightings, the baboon raided fruit and vegetable gardens on private property, and has evaded one capture attempt via a tranquilizer dart. Media reported