On May 18, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) leadership shocked party members by nominating former premier Simon Chang (張善政) as its Taoyuan mayoral candidate. In doing so, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) caused another political firestorm, again triggering tension within the party. Chu has been pulling this kind of stunt with alarming regularity, in a sign of the terminal decline of the Chinese regime in exile. This particular maneuver consisted of three layers: First, Chu’s appointment of the former premier — who was also on the KMT’s presidential ticket in 2020 as former ...