CULTURE CRITICIZED: If Chiang Ching-kuo could see the way that ‘the KMT has turned its back on the public and lost its ideals he would be heartbroken,’ Gou said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 13, 2019
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) yesterday resigned from the

Yonglin Foundation deputy chief executive Evelyn Tsai holds Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) honorary certificate, party membership card and letter announcing his resignation from the party in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District yesterday.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

Gou said in a statement that quitting the party was not an easy decision.

While he feels sad about leaving the party, “reason tells me I am doing the right thing, something that will significantly change the fate of the Republic of China [ROC],” he said. “If former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) could see the way the KMT has turned its back on the public and forgotten its ideals he would be heartbroken.”

The KMT should not exist just to oppose the Democratic Progressive Party, or to promote its members’ personal interests or to trade favors, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

The DPP primary has devolved into a slugfest over procedure and party identity.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/04/30
By: Courtney Donovan Smith

Credit: Reuters / TPG

From the moment William Lai (賴清德) registered in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential primary to challenge President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) re-election bid on March 18, tensions began to divide the party and its top brass was left scrambling to attempt to contain the damage.

His entrance into the race appeared to have caught many of the top people in the party by surprise, including key people in his own famously disciplined New Tide factional wing of the party. This surprise was compounded by what many consider the sheer audacity of the act: It is rare to challenge a sitting incumbent in a primary, and unprecedented to challenge a sitting president. Even more shocking to some is that William Lai had only just a few months prior headed President Tsai’s cabinet as her premier – and, as premier, he had stated he would support President Tsai in the upcoming 2020 election.

For many in the top echelons of the DPP, this – as they perceived it – act of betrayal to party unity and the president was unconscionable. The party swiftly moved to delay the primary – simply an opinion poll conducted among a sample of Taiwanese residents, regardless of party affiliation – for a few days to buy time for a hastily convened group of five top party figures to try and broker a compromise while the president was on an overseas trip. 34, or half of the sitting DPP legislative caucus issued a declaration of support for the president within 48 hours. Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) announced he would not run in 2020, leaving the VP slot vacant. Calls for party unity echoed through the halls of power and throughout the pro-DPP partisan media. Polls hastily held “proved” (polls being widely considered politically influenced or somewhat manipulated, though not entirely fabricated, in Taiwan) that a Tsai-Lai ticket would be more formidable than either candidacy alone.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/21
By: Yeh Su-ping and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, April 21 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) exchanged verbal shots on

President Tsai Ing-wen and Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou (right)

democracy and the economy with business tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘), who is seeking the opposition Kuomintang’s (KMT) nomination in the 2020 presidential race.

Tsai, who is facing a major challenge within her own Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for its nomination in the presidential election, hit back at Gou after he said recently that “you cannot eat democracy,” branding him as someone who does not understand democratic values.

Democracy is the value that Taiwan’s people have gained after more than 50 years of effort, and without it the Taiwan that makes people feel proud does not exist, she said in a Facebook post Sunday.

“We have never ignored the economy because of democracy,” she said, stressing that the “responsibility of a responsible political figure” is enabling people to build a better life under a free and democratic system and that presidential candidates in a democratic nation had to have democratic credentials.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/05
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Dec. 5 (CNA) The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will hold a by-

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) / CNA file photo

election on Jan. 6 for a chairperson to replace President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who stepped down from the post in the wake the party’s defeat in the Nov. 24 local government elections.

The Jan. 6 date was decided Wednesday at a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee, according to DPP spokesman Johnny Lin (林琮盛).

Lin said registration for the by-election will be held Dec. 10-14, and the candidates’ qualification will be screened by the committee Dec. 19.

Those selected to compete for the party chairmanship will be expected to make a live television presentation of their policies Dec. 30, he said.    [SOURCE]