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.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS