Candidates for Kinmen County commissioner visited some of the area's isolated and sparsely populated islets yesterday to scour the area for votes.
New Party candidate Lee Chu-feng (
"I believe voters have been aware that no other candidate has a long-term devotion to the county like mine," Lee said.
Lee, who represents Kinmen in the legislature, has failed twice in his bid to win the commissioner's seat.
The New Party candidate's major rival is the DPP's Chen Zau-nan (
Chen's bid marks the first time the DPP has fielded a candidate for commissioner in a county dominated by the New Party.
Though the candidate has no family ties in Kinmen, he shares the same name as the Chen Clan Association, a powerful faction that is backing him in the race.
Another promising candidate is the People First Party's (PFP) Tsai Shih-min (
Through his position, Tsai has managed to build a strong rapport with Kinmen residents and is supported by the Tsai Clan Association.
PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) visited Kinmen on Nov. 26 to stump for Tsai, giving him a boost among undecided voters.
Kinmen County covers 150.5km2. The farthest area in the county is Wuchiu (烏坵) township, which sits on a small islet 133km from Kinmen's major island.
In Tainan County, political watchers say that pro-KMT factions have united for the first time to win a victory in the stronghold of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Political observers say the DPP's strength has been weakened by the participation of Wei Yao-chien (魏耀乾), a former party member, in the commissioner's race.
Wei may siphon away votes from DPP candidate Su Huan-chih (
Su's fight against Wei is expected to leave the candidate weaker against KMT competitor Wu Ching-chi (
Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
To give Su a boost, first lady Wu Shu-chen (
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS