Social issues featured strongly in yesterday's TV campaign forum for the presidential election.
KMT's Lien Chan (
Independent James Soong (
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The DPP's Chen Shui-bian (
On social aspects, Lien said his first mission is to start a war against crime, especially in the areas of women's personal safety. He also promised to offer more security in areas of employment, property, education and political participation.
"We should set up a thorough social security system to take care of the eldery, women, aborigines, mentally or physically disadvantaged and low-income citizens.
On housing policy, Lien promised to offer a preferential loan rate that would be lower than the existing 3.5 percent to first-time house consumers.
Lien also highlighted his previous achievement in the Cabinet, assuring his promises would not be empty.
Before the National Health Insurance program was implemented, Lien said, there were nine million patients and 400,000 chronic patients without any health insurance coverage.
But five years later, he said, everyone is enjoying the fruitful results of the policy.
"This policy received 80 percent approval from the people, and has become the most successful public policy," he said.
Lien's "10 visions" provoked an immediate response from Soong, who said the Central Government was currently in debt for NT$2.4 trillion and the potential debts, including those of local governments, was NT$6 trillion.
"The governments could not even afford the expenses of the National Health Insurance and the Labor Insurance," he said.
Soong also pointed out that the unemployment rate had reached the highest point in over 14 years. And one third of aborigines were unemployed, he said.
"The government's protection of human rights is making us more and more worried," he said.
Soong did concede that all of the candidates' policies on social issues were similar, but they differed in their style of presentation.
"I fully agreed with the 10 visions that Mr Lien proposed, but the key point is to ask who has the capability, resolution and the methods to fulfill people's expectation," he said.
Compared with Lien and Soong, Chen yesterday presented a more focused plan on social welfare -- the 3-3-3 home-settling and welfare project (
Before the National Annuity Plan (
The second "three" is that children under three would be exempt from any medical expenses, Chen said.
And Chen also promised to offer a preferential loan interest rate of 3 percent to first time home buyers.
"A-bian (referring to himself) is the only one who understands the hardship of citizens from small to middle-class families," Chen said.
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would