The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung mayoral candidates last night traded barbs on everything from the economy, investment and tourism, to population and administrative competency in their only televised debate of the campaign.
The two-hour debate, broadcast by Sanlih E-Television, began at 8pm with the DPP’s Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and the KMT’s Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) delivering their opening statements. There were two rounds of questioning before the debate ended with final statements from each candidate.
Kaohsiung, which has been run by DPP members for 20 years, has become the site of one of the hottest mayoral races in the nation.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
People should not abuse or trample Kaohsiung for the sake of an election, Chen said, adding that it did not have to be him who gets elected, as long as it was not Han.
“Elections are temporary, but Kaohsiung is forever,” Chen said.
“How [were KMT Chairman and former Kaohsiung mayor Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) remarks last week] different from Han calling Kaohsiung ‘old and poor,’” he said.
Wu on Sunday apologized for referring to Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊), who was mayor of the city for almost 12 years, as “a fat sow.”
“This is the way the KMT has consistently treated Kaohsiung,” Chen said.
He promised to create a point of contact to attract businesses and investments, open a science park in Ciaotou District (橋頭), connect Kaohsiung and Tainan via a “technological corridor,” and bring in more than NT$600 billion (US$19.4 billion) in economic output.
“Kaohsiung needs to move forward, but not by drilling for oil near Itu Aba (Taiping Island, 太平島) or building a Ferris wheel motel near Love River (愛河),” Chen said, adding: “If [Han] were willing to take back these unrealistic policies, [he] would earn my respect.”
Han said that his remarks about Kaohsiung being “old and poor” had been proven by Chen’s earlier admission that “the city is confronting issues of an economy in transition, a graying population and fiscal imbalances.”
“Shutting people down for saying things that are true is the reason those problems are not solved,” Han said.
Kaohsiung’s municipal debt of NT$250 billion to NT$300 billion is the highest in the nation, while it also ranks lowest for population growth, employment opportunities and youth unemployment, while its share of people with middling to low income and violent crime is outsized, he said.
“Those are the realities of Kaohsiung that we should confront bravely,” Han said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the