KMT presidential nominee Hung Hsiu-chu continued to face questions over whether she will continue to run in the race or step down in favor of a stronger candidate. Reports continue to circulate that the KMT is dissatisfied with her candidacy, and some pundits have speculated that she might be asked to accept the party nomination…
At its national party congress on July 19, the ruling Kuomingtang (KMT) officially named Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu as its candidate for the January 2016 presidential election. The nomination put an end to months of speculation about who would be the KMT standard-bearer. When Party Chairman Eric Chu, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, and other…
Eric Chu, chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT), met with China’s President Xi Jinping in Xi’s capacity as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on May 4 at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. Chu was in China as leader of his party’s delegation to a KMT-CCP forum held in Shanghai. The two party heads…
Taiwan is attempting to shift from a conscript military to a volunteer, professional military in a very short time frame. Can the army recruit enough personnel to maintain a credible defense? In 1973, when United States began its transition from a conscript army to an all-volunteer force, no one was sure whether the move would…
DPP Chair Tsai Ing-wen accepted the resignation of party spokeswoman Hsu Chia-ching on March 9 following Hsu’s recent allegations that former president Chen Shui-bian had accepted billions of NT dollars in bribes from construction magnates during his presidency. Speaking before the Taiwan Benevolent Association of Dallas, Texas, on February 15, Hsu said she had been…
Civic groups and politicians commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Sunflower Movement protest that saw demonstrators opposing the proposed Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement (CSSTA) with China seize control of the Legislative Yuan’s main chamber. An organization known as the People as Masters Association led a demonstration outside the Legislative Yuan on March 18 to…
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman and 2012 presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen declared on a February 14 Facebook post that she would seek to run for the presidency under the DPP banner in the 2016 election. Tsai had long been considered the likely candidate to represent the opposition DPP as it attempts to maintain momentum following…
