Amid good-luck wishes yesterday from people in Fenggang Village (楓港) in Pingtung County’s Fangshan Township (枋山), her parents’ home town, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) paraded through Pingtung and Kaohsiung, greeted by supporters along the way, launching her final-week nationwide campaign tour before the presidential election on Saturday.
“Four years ago, I started my presidential campaign trip along Provincial Highway No. 1 from Fenggang. Four years later, I have returned to my hometown, Pingtung. From here I will start my week-long campaign trip,” Tsai told more than 100 people in the small coastal village with a population of a little over 1,000 who gathered in front of the local Delong Temple (德隆宮). “I could feel the desire of the people in Pingtung to elect a president from here.”
“Please give me the best election outcome,” Tsai said, urging her supporters to also support the DPP’s district and legislator-at-large candidates.
Photo: AFP / Sam Yeh
Among the supporters, Tsai’s uncle, aunt and cousin were also in attendance. Her uncle and aunt brought Tsai a gift of zongzi (粽子, rice dumplings), which symbolize victory in Taiwanese culture.
Prior to Tsai’s arrival, the temple leaders walked around the facility to make sure that everything was well prepared “to welcome our President Tsai.”
Before speaking to the crowd, Tsai went into the temple to make offerings to the deities.
Photo: EPA / Ritchie B. Tongo
The temple master gave Tsai a flag with the temple’s and the deity’s name on it to express their goodwill, while two Paiwan leaders presented traditional headwear and a vest with a totem to recognize her as a “daughter of the Paiwan people,” as her grandmother was a Paiwan Aborigine.
Following a rally to launch the nationwide tour, Tsai, accompanied by DPP legislative candidate Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) and Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Meng-an (潘孟安), paraded through Linluo Township (麟洛) and neighboring Pingtung City.
“Dear friends and fellow Pingtung residents, Tsai Ing-wen is here in person, greeting all of you,” a campaigner said through loudspeaker.
“Please vote for Tsai to make Pingtung the home county of the president,” the campaigner said.
The announcements were made in Hakka while the parade was in Linluo, as it is a predominantly Hakka township, and switched to Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) as the parade crossed into Pingtung City, which is a predominantly Hoklo-speaking area.
Supporters gathered in groups along the parade route, waving flags, giving the thumbs-up gesture and screaming as the jeep carrying Tsai, Chung and Pan passed by.
“Mom, Tsai is coming. Look, I see her,” shouted a girl who stood outside a restaurant with her family waiting for the parade to pass, pointing to the direction that Tsai was coming from.
After the parade in Pingtung, Tsai accompanied the DPP’s Kaohsiung legislative candidates in a parade through the city and finished the day with an evening rally in Kaohsiung, which event organizers said had a turnout of 100,000 people.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
UNITED: The other candidates congratulated Cheng on her win, saying they hoped the new chair could bring the party to victory in the elections next year and in 2028 Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday won the party’s chair election with 65,122 votes, or 50.15 percent of the votes. It was the first time Cheng, 55, ran for the top KMT post, and she is the second woman to hold the post of chair, following Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who served from 2016 to 2017. Cheng is to succeed incumbent Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Nov. 1 for a four-year term. Cheng said she has spoken with the other five candidates and pledged to maintain party unity, adding that the party would aim to win the elections next year and
RSS