The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday launched the party’s “digital chapter,” a mobile app that it says represents its willingness to “keep up with the times.”
The app’s functions allow KMT members to verify a membership card or pay fees, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) told a news conference in Taipei.
A map lets users find chapter locations and shops that offer discounts to party members, he said.
Photo: CNA
“More importantly, we can keep in touch with you,” Chiang said, adding that the party can use the app to update its members on party events and make announcements.
The app could also be used to conduct polls in real time to “understand the views of more party members and even non-party members,” he said.
People can also use the app to apply to join the party, he added.
“This is the digital age,” Chiang said. “If you cannot keep up with the digital age, prepare to be eliminated by it.”
Chiang said that he proposed the creation of a “digital chapter” in the run-up to the March 7 chairperson by-election, when he was campaigning for the position.
“We are the first political party to digitize,” he said.
The launch of the platform “represents that the KMT is willing to innovate, accept change and keep up with the times,” he said.
“In the past, everyone might have thought that the KMT was removed from the public and far away from its members,” said Chien Chin-yu (簡勤佑), who was appointed the party’s “chief digital marketing technology officer” in April.
The intent of the app is to address that distance, he added.
“This is just the beginning,” Chien said, adding that other functions are to be added to the app.
The “digital chapter” became available for download on Tuesday, the party said.
Asked whether the KMT’s proposed referendum on food safety means that it is taking an “anti-US” stance, Chiang said that “guarding food safety ... has nothing to do with being pro-US or anti-US. This is an issue of food safety — no need to politicize it.”
On Wednesday, Chiang said that the KMT planned to launch a referendum on food safety on Sunday in response to a decision by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to ease restrictions on imports of US pork containing ractopamine and beef from cattle aged 30 months or older.
Additional reporting by CNA
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