Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, yesterday urged supporters to vote for him in the Jan. 11 elections and give him the chance to serve Taiwanese and stimulate the economy.
Han made the remarks as he took the stage to address a crowd after a march in Kaohsiung hosted by his campaign team, which said that 350,000 people were in attendance.
Han originally planned to lead the march, which started at Aozihdi Forest Park (凹子底森林公園) in Kaohsiung’s Gushan District (鼓山), but changed his plans at the last minute at the advice of aides over security concerns and instead waited at its final destination.
Photo: CNA
He thanked supporters and the city’s residents for electing him as mayor last year.
Kaohsiung has not been the center of such attention in more than a century, with supporters from the city and elsewhere attending the event packing the Kaohsiung MRT metropolitan rail system, Han said, adding that local hotels have been booked solid for two straight days.
“We have restored the honor of Kaohsiung” through the efforts of the Kaohsiung City Government and residents over the past year, he said.
Photo: CNA
Han extolled the virtues of his presidential platform, promising a clean government, as well as to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty, ensure that its people are wealthy, seek talented people for government service, be aware of people’s difficulties and, most importantly, foster youth talent.
He said that if people vote for him and the KMT, he would show them that he can be trusted to boost Taiwan’s economy.
Deputy Kaohsiung Mayor Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時), who attended the event in a show of support, said that “the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] controls the media, but it cannot control people’s desire to know the truth.”
“The DPP’s continued efforts to slander Mayor Han cannot hide the fact that he is just and honorable,” he said. “Nor can the DPP hide its corruption, ineptitude and poor governance by spreading money around.”
Han has only led Kaohsiung for one year and has already surpassed the performances of his predecessors, Yeh said.
He cited smooth roads devoid of potholes, brighter lights and a 20 percent increase in tourists in the first half of Han’s term as successes.
Despite a lack of cross-strait exchanges “due to hostility against China by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration,” Kaohsiung has nonetheless seen the number of visitors increase by 10 percent, Yeh said.
The city has also seen a twofold increase in produce exports and air pollution monitors have not once exceeded standards, he said.
Asked about a remark by former premier William Lai (賴清德), the DPP’s vice presidential candidate, that he has “transformed from a warm guy to an angry man,” former premier Simon Chang (張善政), the KMT’s vice presidential candidate, said that the DPP was to blame for his transformation, calling on the public to vote it out of power.
Former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who is now Han’s campaign director, said that the DPP has been relentlessly slandering Han instead of crowing about its own triumphs, because it has no achievements to claim.
Chu called for people to support Han and the KMT in next month’s presidential and legislative elections.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary