The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday lost its traditional stronghold of Hsinchu City despite a split in the opposition vote, while it retained power in Hsinchu County and Miaoli County.
The region’s dramatic contests featured many familiar faces, with a former mayor and a former commissioner joining the fray, although both failed in their attempts to reclaim their former posts.
In Hsinchu City, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nominee Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) prevailed by a whisker in a three-legged mayoral race despite a split in the pan-green vote, defeating KMT Mayor Hsu Ming-tsai (許明財) and former mayor Tsai Jen-chien (蔡仁堅), who ran as an independent candidate after failing to make the DPP ticket in September.
Lin triumphed with 76,578 votes, albeit by a razor-thin margin, with Hsu just behind with 75,564 votes, and Tsai trailing in third with 40,480 votes, ending a race marked by the exchange of vicious attacks between the two DPP-affiliated candidates.
Lin and Tsai received 38.36 and 20.28 percent of the vote respectively, a major improvement for the DPP from the 41 percent it received in 2009, while Hsu’s share of the vote dropped from 55 to 37.85 percent.
Hsinchu County Commissioner Chiu Ching-chun (邱鏡淳) staved off a close challenge from his predecessor, Cheng Yung-chin (鄭永金), an ex-KMT member who ran as an independent candidate.
Cheng lost despite the backing of the DPP, which chose not to field a candidate in the county, which has traditionally been dominated by the pan-blue camp.
Chiu collected 124,309 votes, beating the 118,698 votes that went to his nearest rival. The two received an almost even share of the vote, with Chiu claiming 46.94 percent and Cheng with 44.82 percent.
In the battle for Miaoli County commissioner, KMT Legislator Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) breezed through in another multi-legged race, winning 147,547 votes, leaving behind the DPP’s Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) and independent candidate Kang Shih-ju (康世儒), who received 89,838 votes and 60,356 votes respectively.
Hsu declared victory despite being embroiled in an ongoing legal case. The candidate is appealing a nine-year sentence for graft committed during his term as the mayor of Toufen Township (頭份).
Discussions of a possible alliance between Kang and the DPP failed to materialize, closing the door to a reenactment of Kang’s successful legislative campaign in 2009, in which the former KMT member received DPP support as an independent.
The KMT remained dominant, with Hsu racking up 46.59 percent of the vote in a victory comparable to his predecessor Liu Cheng-hung’s (劉政鴻) win in 2009 with 63 percent.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS