Bickering between candidates for the year-end mayoral and county commissioner races began yesterday as People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (
"A boy scout is running the country; we don't want a boy scout running the county," Chou said yesterday in an opening salvo at the 39-year-old Luo, in a reference to his opponent's youth and relative inexperience.
Speaking at a press conference kicking off his campaign for Taipei County Commissioner yesterday, Chou addressed what is widely seen to be Luo's ethnic advantage in the race.
Chou said he has spent the last eleven years getting to know the Hakka community in Taipei County and is aware of their issues and concerns, adding that he hopes the Hakka community will support him.
Over 500,000 Hakka reside in Taipei County, making their support critical in the year-end commissioner race.
Responding to Chou's comments yesterday, Luo said that being young and a member of the young politicians that the media has dubbed President Chen Shui-bian's (
Luo also played the ethnicity card yesterday, highlighting the fact that he is the first Hakka to run for county commissioner in Taipei County.
Both Luo and Chou yesterday began their campaigns in Yingge, Taipei County.
In addition to Luo and Chou, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Chia-chin (
Getting a head start on Luo and Chou, Lee began his campaign activities yesterday. While mingling with supporters in Taipei County yesterday, Lee also took the chance to criticize Chou. Chou has been too anxious to push ahead, Lee said, and he should enter the KMT's nomination process as suggested by KMT Secretary-General Lin Feng-cheng (
Chou previously called upon the KMT to speed up its nomination process to facilitate pan-blue cooperation.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
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