Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) yesterday promoted a street dance event and on Friday opened a new transportation hub, while Deputy Legislative speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate for the city, outlined his policies for economic development, tourism and air pollution reduction as they ramped up their respective mayoral campaigns.
Lu of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is bidding for a second term, but is facing a strong challenge from Tsai, a veteran lawmaker, after they completed their candidate registration requirements ahead of the deadline on Friday last week.
Independent candidate Chen Mei-fei (陳美妃), who registered on the final day, paying the NT$1.5 million (US$48,552) election deposit, has said that she would focus on improving transportation and education in the city, while promising to subsidize household electricity bills.
Photo: CNA
Lu opened the Taichung Cup Street Dance Competition yesterday afternoon, a two-day event featuring teams from across Taiwan.
Taichung is hosting the event for the fourth year, Lu said, adding that it has delightful performances and is full of youthful energy.
She said her administration supports such talented people, who are aiming for glory at the Olympics, which has added breaking for the 2024 Paris Games.
She also presented plans to stimulate the local economy as she attended groundbreaking ceremonies for new factories in the past two days and the launch of operations at a transportation hub in Fengyuan District (豐原).
The facility next to the Fengyuan Railway Station took three years to complete and serves as a major regional bus depot, she said, adding that it has a shopping mall and public parking.
Separately, Tsai outlined his plan to boost tourism in the city’s outskirts as he visited Guguan (谷關), an area with many tourist spots in Heping District (和平).
His “Guguan 300” plan would draw 3 million people each year to the area by building bicycle paths and more pedestrian walkways, as well as by improving transportation by revamping road links and adding car parks, Tsai said.
A water park near the Dajia River (大甲溪), which runs through Guguan, is also part of the plan, he said.
New festivals and other programs would help draw people to the area’s mountains and indigenous communities, revitalizing the local economy, he said.
“This town is a gateway for tourism and development for Taichung’s mountainous areas,” he said. “It is the city’s back garden.”
“However, the current city administration has no vision, no planning for this region,” he said.
“In the past four years, local people have said that city government officials have offered no development plans for Guguan, so it is time for a change,” Tsai said.
“I have the vision and the drive to make it happen, to fulfill the Guguan 300 program,” he said.
He also said that Lu had not done anything to address Taichung’s air pollution problems, adding that they have gotten worse in past four years.
Tsai said that Lu in her previous mayoral campaign handed out “Guguan air bottle” gifts to voters, using them as a symbol of her plans to improve the city’s air quality, vowing it would be as clear as the mountain air of Guguan.
“We now know Lu’s Guguan air bottles were another of her broken campaign promises,” he said.
“I will not use bottled clean air as a stunt to fool voters,” he said. “When elected, I will implement real policies to address this issue, including an end to coal being burned at Taichung’s power plants, and phasing out polluting cars and scooters in the city.”
City government officials told reporters yesterday that Lu’s administration has mitigated air pollution, with regular sampling results showing that air quality has improved this year.
The air bottle campaign showed her determination to fight the city’s pollution problems, the officials said.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS