The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Wednesday renamed its Huang Fu-hsing branch the “Veterans Service Working Committee” and restructured it as a tier-two division.
The move to reorganize its Huang Fu-hsing branch, a special unit made up of retired military personnel and their dependents, which operated independently of the party’s central leadership, is part of efforts to reform the more-than-100-year-old political party.
The decision was passed at the KMT’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said the move was not aimed at eliminating the branch — long considered a “party within a party” due to its members’ unwavering support — but seeks to enhance and cement the branch’s functionality and influence, thereby gaining more support among veterans who are not KMT members.
The Huang Fu-hsing branch, officially called the “National Veterans Committee,” was established in July 1956 by then-minister of the Executive Yuan’s Veterans Affairs Commission Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) in the hope that retired military personnel and their dependents would back the KMT.
Despite a decline in membership from more than 200,000 at its peak to about 80,000, the branch has long been a core backer of the KMT and still wields major influence in internal party elections.
As members of the Huang Fu-hsing branch are mostly veterans and their dependents, it has long been considered a “deep blue” camp, because of their conservative ideologies.
After the KMT lost the presidency for the first time in 2000, the party began to streamline, mainly targeting its profitable business committees, which were once responsible for the KMT being dubbed the world’s wealthiest political party.
Since 2006, the Huang Fu-hsing branch has been downsized, to tackle the KMT’s rapidly worsening finances and social image.
Although some KMT lawmakers broadly support efforts to streamline the party’s organizational structure, former KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) has urged the party headquarters to communicate with rank-and-file members to ensure they understand the reasoning for it and do not become resentful.
Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), the KMT’s vice presidential candidate in the Jan. 13 presidential election, gave the Huang Fu-hsing branch credit for its contribution to the party over the years.
However, the KMT has no choice but to carry out internal reorganization reforms.
“It’s a matter of life or death,” he said.
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