Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) drew criticism yesterday when, after parts of the city had become flooded due to heavy rain on Friday, Deputy Kaohsiung Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) stepped in for him to inspect most of the city’s affected areas.
The city was pummelled by heavy rain on Friday afternoon, with rainfall in some areas reaching 126.5mm, but the floodwater receded from most of the roads in two to three hours, the city government said, adding that the rainfall eased yesterday.
While the flooding caused Han to cancel a presidential campaign stop in Taichung yesterday, he was still not part of the disaster inspections, or part of a second emergency meeting held yesterday morning.
Photo: CNA
Asked about Han’s absence, Lee said that the emergency had been downgraded after the floods subsided and that he had told Han that he would host the morning meeting.
Lee said that, as Friday’s rainfall was more severe than the rainfall on Aug. 23 last year, he had called the second meeting to assess whether the city’s dredging and drainage had been adequage.
There has been speculation that Lee would be Han’s first pick to run in a mayoral by-election if Han — nominated to be the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate — wins the presidential election on Jan. 11 next year.
Asked whether he would run for mayor, Lee responded with a firm no.
The mayor was also criticized for taking part in a dinner with catering businesses on Friday evening after presiding over an initial emergency meeting about the flooding in the city.
Kaohsiung Information Bureau Director-General Anne Wang (王淺秋) yesterday said that Han attended the dinner only after confirming that the flooding had mostly subsided.
Han’s attendance at the dinner was part of his official schedule, and not personal entertainment, the Kaohsiung Local Affairs Bureau added in a statement yesterday.
After Han allegedly disappeared for more than 20 hours, he and Lee yesterday afternoon inspected a flooded apartment building in the Kaohsiung’s Lingya District (苓雅).
Han complained that many people only criticized him, while Pingtung County and Tainan were also hit by heavy rainfall.
In related news, Han’s official account on the messaging app Line went awry on Friday, as one of the Web sites it referred to redirected to a page showing adult videos.
Wang yesterday apologized for the mistake and said that the city government would launch a probe.
“We will fix the situation as soon as possible,” Line added on Friday.
Additional reporting by CNA
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
SECURITY: Grassroots civil servants would only need to disclose their travel, while those who have access to classified information would be subject to stricter regulations The government is considering requiring legislators and elected officials to obtain prior approval before traveling to China to prevent Chinese infiltration, an official familiar with national security said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) in March announced 17 measures to counter China’s growing infiltration efforts, including requiring all civil servants to make trips to China more transparent so they can be held publicly accountable. The official said that the government is considering amending the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to require all civil servants to follow strict regulations before traveling to China.
RSS