Former Cabinet secretary-general Hsieh Shen-shan (
"So many supporters and people from the grassroots told me that they want me to serve the county," Hsieh said yesterday at a labor union conference in Hualien, "and I am willing to fight for them now."
However, Hsieh added that he would respect the alliance's final choice of candidate.
PHOTO: HUA MENG-CHING
Hsieh, a senior KMT official and labor-union leader, emerged as the favorite among Hualien County voters in media and KMT polls.
The Hualien County commissioner election, due to be held on Aug. 2, is widely seen as a prelude to next March's presidential election as well as a test of the cooperation between the KMT and PFP.
"We are watching to see whether the PFP can successfully persuade its members to support a KMT candidate because there are so many conflicts of interest between the two parties," DPP Secretary General Chang Chun-hsiung (
PFP Legislator Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁), who was sentenced to six years in jail with a fine of NT$35 million by the Taipei District Court in the first instance for financial irregularities, has already formed his campaign team and even set up a campaign headquarters to battle for the commissioner's post left vacant by the late Chang Fu-hsing (
Chang's wife Liu Chao-a (
One DPP official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the Hualien County commissioner campaign may reveal the real situation inside the KMT-PFP alliance.
"It is easy to sit down at the negotiating table and make a deal with other party leaders," the official said. "The question being asked among the lower ranks is who will be scarified?"
The official said that since the the KMT usually receives more than 60 percent of the vote in Hualien County, pan-blue members are keen to land the nomination.
"We believe that the conflict within the KMT-PFP alliance will be revealed during the campaign," the official said. "The pan-blues' problems may steadily worsen in the run up to the presidential election."
Chang Chun-hsiung said that the DPP's Central Standing Committee has authorized President Chen Shui-bian (
"We want to nominate a non-DPP member, who can represent the grassroots and will govern the county by transcending any political party interest," Chang said.
Meanwhile, Premier Yu Shyi-kun visited Liu Chao-a yesterday to exchange views on county affairs. Liu denied after the private meeting with Yu that she had discussed the election with the premier.
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS