Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, yesterday urged supporters to vote for him in the Jan. 11 elections and give him the chance to serve Taiwanese and stimulate the economy.
Han made the remarks as he took the stage to address a crowd after a march in Kaohsiung hosted by his campaign team, which said that 350,000 people were in attendance.
Han originally planned to lead the march, which started at Aozihdi Forest Park (凹子底森林公園) in Kaohsiung’s Gushan District (鼓山), but changed his plans at the last minute at the advice of aides over security concerns and instead waited at its final destination.
Photo: CNA
He thanked supporters and the city’s residents for electing him as mayor last year.
Kaohsiung has not been the center of such attention in more than a century, with supporters from the city and elsewhere attending the event packing the Kaohsiung MRT metropolitan rail system, Han said, adding that local hotels have been booked solid for two straight days.
“We have restored the honor of Kaohsiung” through the efforts of the Kaohsiung City Government and residents over the past year, he said.
Photo: CNA
Han extolled the virtues of his presidential platform, promising a clean government, as well as to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty, ensure that its people are wealthy, seek talented people for government service, be aware of people’s difficulties and, most importantly, foster youth talent.
He said that if people vote for him and the KMT, he would show them that he can be trusted to boost Taiwan’s economy.
Deputy Kaohsiung Mayor Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時), who attended the event in a show of support, said that “the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] controls the media, but it cannot control people’s desire to know the truth.”
“The DPP’s continued efforts to slander Mayor Han cannot hide the fact that he is just and honorable,” he said. “Nor can the DPP hide its corruption, ineptitude and poor governance by spreading money around.”
Han has only led Kaohsiung for one year and has already surpassed the performances of his predecessors, Yeh said.
He cited smooth roads devoid of potholes, brighter lights and a 20 percent increase in tourists in the first half of Han’s term as successes.
Despite a lack of cross-strait exchanges “due to hostility against China by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration,” Kaohsiung has nonetheless seen the number of visitors increase by 10 percent, Yeh said.
The city has also seen a twofold increase in produce exports and air pollution monitors have not once exceeded standards, he said.
Asked about a remark by former premier William Lai (賴清德), the DPP’s vice presidential candidate, that he has “transformed from a warm guy to an angry man,” former premier Simon Chang (張善政), the KMT’s vice presidential candidate, said that the DPP was to blame for his transformation, calling on the public to vote it out of power.
Former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who is now Han’s campaign director, said that the DPP has been relentlessly slandering Han instead of crowing about its own triumphs, because it has no achievements to claim.
Chu called for people to support Han and the KMT in next month’s presidential and legislative elections.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS