KMT Chairmanship Election Blues

The east coast = beautiful

The pro-KMT China Post discusses the jockeying for Mar 26 election for the Chairmanship of the KMT:

With Chen, the field now includes former Deputy Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), former Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), and Taipei City Councilor Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平). Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has not ruled out a run, stating last week that he felt “duty-bound” if the party needed him.

Chairman Yok Mu-ming of the more-KMT-than-the-KMT New Party said he would run, but he had the annoying impediment of not being a KMT member, and so became ineligible. At present it looks like a 2 person race between reactionary Hung, the presidential candidate whom Eric Chu displaced, and Hau, son of reactionary Hau Pei-tsun. They both have excellent reactionary credentials with the Old Soldiers. Veep Wu Den-yih, who is likely Ma's man, is Taiwanese and will probably not be acceptable to the old soldiers, whom media reports say will constitute possibly half of the voters. He is still exploring a run. Former Taichung Mayor Jason Hu who had expressed interest, has already ducked out.

Because the voter base lives in the same ideological bubble as Hung, I'm hoping she'll have a shot at it. Recall that ideologue Ma was elected in 2005 over Taiwanese Wang Jin-pyng, even though party elites all wanted Wang, because the base wanted fellow mainlander ideologue Ma... E-Taiwan news reported back in 2005:

It is fair to attribute Ma's victory to his personal image and promise for a younger and cleaner leadership and, even more weighty, the overwhelming endorsement for the Hong Kong-born politician from the hard-core mainlander community, especially the massive Huang Fu-hsing party branch for retired soldiers.

Clearly whoever wins that base will win the election. Hau is not a firebrand who gabbles in KMT insider codespeak like the loquacious Hung. Perhaps the stars will align and I'll have another year of blogging Hung's wit and wisdom.

The wise choice, former Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, unofficial head of the Taiwanese KMT, is not even in the race, and has said he does not want to be the minority whip, either. In any case, if Wang is not leading the KMT on the floor, that will reduce the KMT's links to the DPP in the legislature.

Some of the Taiwanese legislators are complaining that they will leave the KMT if the ultra-KMT Hung is elected, but that's probably just noise. Recall that there will be another election in 2017 for a new Chairman. They will simply take the long view and wait 16 months for that election. Party insiders may likely accept Hung because they will view her as temporary and a useful patsy for the coming DPP moves against the KMT, keeping some future presidential candidate clean of that charge.

Gonna be fun, the next two months...
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Daily Links

• EXCELLENT: Thim in SCMP: How Beijing should view the new political realities
• Joe Bosco in The Diplomat: No, Tsai is not Beijing's worst nightmare
• Rupert H-C in The Hill on the new administration and the US
• Times of Israel: Taiwan's new president "amazed" by Israel
• Cole: Taiwan's new president likely to surprise on X-strait ties
• TT report on the case of the aboriginal hunter likely to get years for hunting.
• Thim and Liao: Defense of Taiwan post election
• Japan Times Commentary: The People of Taiwan have spoken
• Quartz on Ractopork and the Taiwan election
• WUNDERBAR: Paul Barclay: Relics of Modern Japan's First Colonial War in Taiwan

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