Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) has reiterated the KMT’s historically close ties with the US, saying that the party continues to fight against communism and compete with the Chinese Communist Party regarding values and political systems, the KMT said in a statement yesterday.
Chu, who is on an 11-day trip to the US, made the remarks during a visit to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California on Thursday, and highlighted that the KMT and the US share memories of fighting side by side.
The US and China, which was ruled by the KMT at the time, were allies during World War II, and more than 250,000 US personnel served in what was known as the “China-Burma-India” theater.
Photo: CNA
The KMT has fought against communism for the past 100 years and in bloody battles to defend Taiwan, but is still willing to maintain exchanges with China’s private sector, Chu said.
While at the Hoover Institution, Chu met with US experts and academics, including political sociologist Larry Diamond and political scientist Kharis Templeman, discussing issues related to cross-strait security and relations.
The US academics raised concerns about Taiwan’s local government elections at the end of the year, to which Chu expressed cautious optimism, the KMT said in the statement.
In addition to controlling more than two-thirds of the counties and cities in Taiwan, the KMT would field outstanding candidates to challenge for the municipalities, counties and cities that it does not control, Chu said.
At a press event with Taiwanese media in Washington on Sunday, Chu said he would reopen the KMT’s representative office in the US after 14 years.
Chu said the KMT, Taiwan’s main opposition party since 2016, had not had a voice in Washington since the closure of its representative office, and the aim of reinstating it was to enable the US to better understand the party’s position and the different voices of Taiwan.
The chairman is to attend a plaque-unveiling ceremony to reopen the KMT’s liaison office in Washington tomorrow. The party closed it in 2008 shortly after the election of Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as president.
Asked if the move was in any way linked to him possibly running for the presidency in 2024, Chu rejected the idea, saying that it was part of his job as the party chairman to engage in party politics.
Reopening the office would also establish a communications channel with the US for future KMT presidential candidates, Chu added.
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