Former Tainan county commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) yesterday formally announced that he is running as an independent candidate for Tainan mayor in November’s nine-in-one elections.
Su decided to run as an independent because the pan-green camp already has a nominee, but he feels that he is the best candidate given his familiarity with the city, he told a news conference in Yongkang District (永康).
Su on March 3 announced that he would leave the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and run for Taipei mayor, but yesterday said he decided to return to Tainan because the media in Taipei were focused on the competition between the DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates.
Photo: CNA
Although he originally hoped to promote local autonomy in Taipei’s districts, boroughs and communities “so that everyone could contribute to the city,” Su found that he could not get his policies across to the public due to the media’s focus on the two main parties, he said.
While there would be some voter overlap between him, DPP nominee Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), independent candidate Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) and KMT nominee Kao Su-po (高思博), Su said that he could solve the city’s problems.
His time as county commissioner made him very familiar with economic and regional development, and his successes gained him many supporters, he said.
Property taxes in Tainan rose 81 percent when Premier William Lai (賴清德) was its mayor and the city collected back taxes going back years, which affected 120,000 residents, he said.
Su vowed to stop collecting back taxes, return those already paid and formally apologize to the city’s residents, he said.
Kao yesterday said that Su was more capable at municipal administration than his “apprentice” Huang, adding that Su offers city residents a better choice.
Huang mistakenly believes he could “win lying down,” but the DPP’s hold on power in Tainan is waning, Kao added.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
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