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.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
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
Four former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the territory’s largest national security case were released yesterday after more than four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom. Former legislators Claudia Mo (毛孟靜), Jeremy Tam (譚文豪), Kwok Ka-ki (郭家麒) and Gary Fan (范國威) were part of a group of 47 public figures — including some of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy advocates — who were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election. The case fell under a National Security Law imposed on the territory by Beijng, and drew international condemnation and warnings