Lin Hsing-er (林杏兒), head of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Department of Youth Affairs, yesterday called for an end to infighting after former KMT secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) joined party members opposed to the reinstatement of Independent Legislator Fu Kun-chi’s (傅崐萁) membership.
King in a Pop Radio interview said that Fu was “like a time bomb,” adding that the decision regarding his reinstatement should not be made until the party elects a new chairperson and Central Standing Committee members on March 7.
Reinstating Fu, who was expelled from the party in 2009, would be a “hasty and wrong decision,” King on Monday told a news conference held by a group of younger KMT members, including Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Lin, who is also on the KMT’s Central Standing Committee, urged younger party members not to become “puppets” in what she described as a continuation of the infighting that had damaged the party in the past.
Infighting has re-emerged just as the KMT is about to reform, Lin said.
“Do not leave the previous generation’s fighting to our generation,” she said. “Our generation hopes for and needs change.”
“The DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] should be the first to oppose Fu Kun-chi’s return to the KMT,” Lin said. “But oddly, it was KMT people who came out to stop it.”
“Right now, the KMT’s primary battleground is in the Legislative Yuan,” she said. “We need to unite more forces.”
Lin asked why the party would close its doors to Fu “when the KMT is most in need.”
“Would it be bad for the KMT to have one more [legislative] seat?” she asked.
“The edges of [the KMT’s] knives should be pointed outward,” she said, calling for party unity amid plans for reform.
KMT Central Committee member Chen Mao-chia (陳茂嘉) echoed Lin’s call, saying: “It is the KMT that needs Fu Kun-chi and not Fu Kun-chi who needs the KMT.”
The KMT’s Party Disciplinary Committee was scheduled to review Fu’s case yesterday, but the KMT in a statement on Monday said that the meeting would be canceled because a quorum would not be reached.
Additional reporting by CNA
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a