Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday pledged to help the government promote an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China. Hau also resolved to improve city projects such as the MRT Wenhu Line and the Maokong Gondola as he celebrated his third anniversary in office.
The Taipei City Government will create a team dedicated to promoting the ECFA and will invite experts to explain the meaning and potential effects of the ECFA to the public, Hau told reporters.
“Many people oppose signing an ECFA with China because they do not understand what [it] is ... China would no longer be a factory for Taiwanese companies if we signed an ECFA — it would become a market [for them] and benefit Taiwanese businesses,” he said.
PHOTO: LIN SHU-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
Hau said the city government would set up gate-keeping measures for Chinese imports, adding that an ECFA would make Taiwan more international.
“The Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] insists on closing the country to the international community because of its anti-China stance, but Taiwan should have the confidence to embrace a challenge and benefit from opening to more opportunities,” he said.
Hau’s statement may have been a political signal as media have speculated about tension between him and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Hau yesterday also invited former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) of the DPP to run against him in next year’s Taipei mayoral election.
Various opinion polls have suggested that Su and DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) are among the DPP’s strongest potential candidates for next year’s five special municipality elections.
A poll conducted by Chinese-language China Times on Monday indicated that Su would be the DPP’s strongest candidate for next year’s Taipei mayoral election.
Thirty-nine percent of the 1,000 Taipei residents polled said they would vote for Su, while Hau enjoyed a support rate of 41 percent. If the race were to pit Tsai against Hau, around 35 percent said they would vote for Tsai, while 48 percent said they would support Hau.
“Taipei is the capital city and deserves an election race between the best candidates,” Hau said.
Hau promised to use the remainder of the year to continue improving municipal projects including the malfunction-plagued Wenhu Line and the Maokong Gondola, which remains closed after the ground eroded from underneath part of a support pillar.
Hau also said he would use next year’s Taipei International Flora Expo to promote the city to the world.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday also marked her third anniversary in office. She pledged to build a “new” Kaohsiung in the coming year.
Chen told a press conference at the city government that her biggest task during the coming year would be to oversee the merger between Kaohsiung City and County.
“After the merger, Kaohsiung will have a population of 2.77 million people — more than the population of Jamaica or Mongolia,” Chen said. “In light of the [new] municipality’s size, it can be seen as a ‘nation within a nation.’”
Chen said the city and county could complement each other, with the city setting up a bureau in charge of logistics of agricultural products from the county.
Chen said she expected districts in the city and county to enjoy equal footing after the merger and to fight for more funding from the central government.
“I believe the central government should listen to the voice of southern Taiwan and give us what we deserve,” she said.
The mayor said the World Games last summer could be seen as a warm-up for the merger.
“We are going to see Kaohsiung reach new heights and prosper in the next 100 years,” she said.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based