Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) retains a lead over rumored candidates for next year’s Taipei mayoral election, a survey by the Taiwan Competitiveness Forum said, while New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) has the highest approval rating among prospective pan-blue candidates.
The poll shows that Ko, an independent, has the highest overall approval rating at 38 percent, leading his rumored Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) challengers, Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) and DPP Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智), whose ratings stand at 25.5 percent and 8.8 percent respectively.
Chu had the highest approval rating (30.3 percent) among Ko’s prospective pan-blue rivals, followed by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) with 27.1 percent.
Forum director-general Pan Chien-kuo (龐建國) said the KMT would likely win pity votes if Ting were nominated.
Ting in 2010 and 2014 had the highest approval ratings during party primaries for the Taipei mayoral elections, but he gave KMT Central Standing Committee member Sean Lien (連勝文) and then-Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) the chance to run.
Chu, if elected, might suspend his mayoral duties and run for president, or be KMT chairman-elect Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) running mate in the 2020 presidential election, he said.
Chu in 2015 took leave from his mayoralty to campaign for president, sparking criticism that he had broken his promise to serve out his term.
Meanwhile, Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁), a rumored candidate for the Taipei race, yesterday promoted Hualien watermelons at Taipei’s Hope Farmers’ Market.
Fu, an independent in the pan-blue camp, has been gifting supersized watermelons reportedly weighing up to 18kg each to Taipei city councilors and reporters.
The move has prompted speculation over his potential Taipei bid.
In response to reporters’ questions on whether he would run for Taipei mayor, Fu said that he would not “rule out any opportunities to plow the fields of happiness.”
He said he also sent Ko some watermelons, too, to wish him luck for the Universiade in August.
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
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
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
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