Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday questioned why opinion polls are asking questions about support for him in the 2020 presidential election when he has never voiced a desire to run for the job.
After attending a handover ceremony for municipal school principals, Ko was asked by reporters about an opinion poll released on Tuesday that found nearly 40 percent of respondents supported Ko in running for presidency in 2020.
“This is interesting. I have never said I am going to run for president, so why are you asking that in the opinion poll?” Ko said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The poll indicated that his support rate could be higher than President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) if he challenged her re-election bid, although 51.6 percent of respondents were against him running for president, and 54.9 percent of residents in Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung opposed the idea.
As for the Nov. 24 elections, Ko has a significant lead (64.4 percent) in supportive rate against his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rivals, Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) respectively, the poll found.
Taipei residents are often least optimistic about him winning re-election when compared with the rest of the nation, but it might be because of “the beauty of distance,” he said, citing the lack of roadside parking fees outside of Taipei.
“It is interesting that the lowest support rate nationwide I get is in Taipei,” Ko said.
In his speech at the ceremony, Ko said that if he is re-elected, pushing forward with full-scale digitalization in education would be very important, as only by bridging the digital divide can students from lower socioeconomic levels have an opportunity to learn and compete with others.
Ko said he wanted to expand the scope of bilingual education in Taipei, and he pledged to continue funding for cultural exchanges to boost Taipei’s and Taiwan’s global presence by subsidizing overseas visits for students and teachers, encouraging students from other nations to visit Taipei and holding international events.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to