President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, has so far been visibly absent from campaigning for his party’s candidate in Saturday’s Greater Taichung legislative by-election.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterpart, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), on the other hand, has made a number of trips to the central city to drum support for his party’s candidate, Greater Taichung Councilor Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱).
According to Liao Wan-chien (廖萬堅), Chen’s campaign camp spokesperson, Su, from late last month to a pre-election campaign rally planned for Friday, would have made a total of 10 visits to Taichung in support of Chen’s electoral bid.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
“Su came to our major events, including a motorcade parade, visiting the voters at market places and other campaign activities. Former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other party top brass have also come to root for Chen. There has been a concentrated effort by the whole DPP team,” Liao said.
The by-election has been deemed as “the skirmish before the main battle to recall Ma,” said Tseng Chao-jung (曾朝榮), director of the DPP’s Greater Taichung branch.
“For this by-election, Ma has not dared to come, not even once. Even the KMT’s campaign team here does not want to talk about Ma [during its campaign,]” Tseng said. “So far the biggest name from the KMT [to campaign for KMT candidate Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆)] is [Greater Taichung Mayor] Jason Hu (胡志強 ).”
Yen Kuan-hen is the son of former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), who was found guilty of corruption and sentenced in November last year to three-and-half years in prison.
Yen Kuan-hen, 35, served as an assistant to his father before the latter’s conviction. The KMT last month announced that Yen Kuan-hen would run against Chen.
Sources say that within the pan-blue camp, the general opinion is that the local party in Greater Taichung is trying to distance itself from Ma as much as possible in its electoral campaign.
A number of KMT city councilor privately said during campaigning that people would heap scorn on Ma whenever the KMT was mentioned. The campaign has been difficult and if the DPP wins Ma will be held responsible, they said.
Greater Taichung City Council Speaker Lin Shih-chang (林士昌) of the KMT was reluctant to speak about Ma’s role, saying only that a number of KMT mobilizing organizations, including Hu, “have been very helpful.”
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
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
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS