Chu Ting-chieh (朱挺介), the son of former Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄) -- now a fugitive -- is running for legislative seat in southern Kaohsiung as an independent.
According to Lin Hsiang-nung (林享能), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung chapter head who is coordinating the pan-blue camp's election campaign there, Chu will probably siphon votes from pan-blue candidates because his campaign themes are similar to those of the pan-blue camp. But his campaign may go a long way in healing the Chu family's battered image after his father's fall from grace in the wake of the Kaohsiung vote-buying scandal in July.
"What we observe here is that certain voters don't really care what the last generation has done," Lin told the Taipei Times. Chu's sister, 25-year-old Chu Ting-shan (朱挺珊), won more than 10,000 votes and was elected in the Kaohsiung City by-election to represent her district, Chiencheng, despite criticism of her father's involvement in vote-buying.
In September last year, Chu An-hsiung was sentenced to 22 months in prison for paying NT$500 per vote to support his city council bid.
In March, the brother and sister jointly organized a support group promoting the pan-blue presidential candidate and KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to consolidate the Chu family's support.
Lin said that in a field where 11 candidates are vying for five open legislative seats, all four blue-leaning independent candidates, including Chu, plan to collaborate with the KMT. It is estimated that a candidate has to gain more than 30,000 ballots to be elected in southern Kaohsiung.
Lin said that Chu's potential should not be underestimated because he personally has quite attractive qualities in a potential legislator, in terms of education, financial resources and local connections. Chu, with no political experience, received a PhD in international industry management from Cambridge University, according to Chinese-language media reports, and was once a lecturer at Oxford University. He now serves as the vice general manager for the An Feng Group (安鋒集團) run by his family.
Chu last week refused to respond to queries about his motives for running in the legislative elections and his opinions on issues.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
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MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
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