EDITORIAL: KMT’s leadership problem
The time when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had a wealth of strong contenders for leadership is long gone.
Two decades ago, the party’s internal structure was still rigidly hierarchical, with prominent figures promised their time at the apex of the power structure. Signs of internal fracture were seen as early as the early 1990s, when a rising star in the party, then-KMT legislator Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), started resisting the party’s plans for him. Jaw in 1993 cofounded the more overtly pro-unification New Party.
KMT unity and hierarchical discipline continued to fray almost as soon as they were first put to the test in a direct presidential election in 1996.
KMT to appoint six Central Advisory Committee members, including Jaw
By Chen Yun
and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday announced plans to appoint six new members, including Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC) chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), to its Central Advisory Committee.
The other five are former Straits Exchange Foundation vice chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉); Tien Tsai-mai (田在勱), manager of Chung Yuan Christian University’s Executive Operation Office for Industry-Academia Cooperation; Chiu Kun-shuan (邱坤玄), a professor at National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of East Asia Studies; Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中); and foreign capital analyst Kirk Yang (楊應超).