The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) New Taipei City mayoral candidate, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), is to embark today on a stumping tour for fellow DPP mayoral and county commissioner candidates in a bid to garner support before the Nov. 24 elections.
Su’s first stop will be Hsinchu, where Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) is seeking re-election.
Su is to attend the opening of a recreational sand pit designed for parents and their children at the Nanliao Fishing Harbor (南寮漁港).
It is expected to be a heartwarming occasion as it was Su who prompted Lin, during the mayor’s election campaign four years ago, to propose transforming the harbor into “Hsinchu’s answer to New Taipei City’s Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf.”
While Lin’s re-election prospects are good, the DPP hopes to parlay Su’s widespread popularity into stronger support ratings for the party’s six first-time candidates for Hsinchu county councilor and to get all 12 of its councilor candidates elected, party sources said.
Turning to Taoyuan, which borders New Taipei City, Su aims to shore up talks initiated between his and Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan’s (鄭文燦) teams to build a New Taipei City-Taoyuan “greater metropolis,” party sources said.
Cheng served as head of the Executive Yuan’s Department of Information Services when Su was premier and later as director of the DPP’s Department of Culture and Communications when Su was party chairman.
The two municipalities, which face several common challenges, are in effect already a greater metropolis, Taoyuan Department of Public Information Director Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said.
For example, they teamed up to monitor wastewater discharged from homes in a public housing complex by the National Taiwan Sport University Station (A7) on the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Access MRT line, after there was a public outcry in April over discharge being flushed into two Sinjhuang District (新莊) creeks that ran through both communities, Chang said, adding that this collaboration is only the first of many to come.
Su also wields influence in the south, as witnessed in the work of another of his apprentices, acting Tainan Mayor Li Men-yen (李孟諺), who has extensive experience in river remediation, party sources said.
Li last month accompanied Su to inspect the Breeze Canal (微風運河) in New Taipei City’s Luzhou District (蘆洲) along a section of the Erchong Floodway (二重疏洪道), which was prone to flooding before Li implemented measures to resolve the problem while heading the then-Taipei county water resources division under Su.
The canal has become a venue for Dragon Boat races.
Members of DPP Legislator and Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chen Chi-mai’s (陳其邁) campaign staff have also approached Su’s team in the hopes of collaborating to identify weaknesses in the political platforms of Chen’s campaign rivals, party sources said.
Chen said he hoped to team up with Su and Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊), whose respective experience in governing New Taipei City and Kaohsiung represents a cross-section of high-quality DPP governance and could convince Taiwanese that the DPP has what it takes to govern successfully.
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
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
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
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by