Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday urged supporters to give the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) another chance in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections and vowed to reform the party if elected president.
The KMT was voted out of office in 2016 because it had lost touch with the public and had deviated from their will, the KMT presidential candidate told a rally attended by more than 1,000 township mayors and borough wardens in Kaohsiung’s Daliao District (大寮).
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is repeating mistakes the KMT made before its 2016 election defeat, and as ruling parties, both put little effort into running the nation, Han said.
Photo: CNA
Having achieved little regarding their policies, both parties therefore resorted to mudslinging and squandering money to win elections, he added.
“If elected president, I promise that I will work hard, that the KMT will undergo reforms and that we will cultivate younger generations,” he said, urging supporters to give the KMT another chance.
Han also promised to offer township mayors a fixed salary or a raise in their monthly allowance.
The current policy of paying each township mayor a monthly allowance of NT$45,000 is unreasonable, considering that the population of each township varies greatly, he said.
If elected president, he would conduct a nationwide survey among township mayors to determine how to adjust their pay, he said.
The rally was one of five campaign events Han attended in Kaohsiung yesterday. After the rally, he visited the Huangpu New Village (黃埔新村) veterans’ community in Fongshan District (鳳山), took part in skeet shooting in Daliao, and attended a Christmas celebration in Zuoying District (左營) and an event to promote local produce in Dashe District (大社).
At the shooting range, Han shot three green balloons respectively labeled “state apparatus,” “diplomatic isolation” and “1450” — a term coined by critics of the DPP to refer to what they believed to be the party’s online influence campaigns.
During an interview with reporters at the range afterward, Han accused the DPP of becoming arrogant after assuming power.
“The DPP’s remarks in the past several days show it has grown very arrogant since taking power,” he said.
Commenting on Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen’s (陳宗彥) remarks on Saturday urging supporters not to vote for minor parties, Han said that members of the public could freely decide which party to vote for.
Democracy is valuable because of its diversity, he said, adding: “They think all Taiwanese have to vote for the DPP.”
In a video the DPP released on Thursday, DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) even said that many Kaohsiung residents feel bad about what they did to Taiwan, Han said.
“In a democracy, people vote to choose their president, legislators and government heads. What wrong could Kaohsiung residents have done to the nation by electing a mayor?” he asked.
“I hope all 23 million Taiwanese vote to prove that the people are truly the master of the country,” he said.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
RSS