President Chen Shui-bian (
Hsu made the prediction when speaking with the Taipei Times on Monday.
"The post-A-bian [Chen's nickname] era will not produce another politician with enough personal charisma, and in the future Taiwan politics will become a competition between parties instead of politicians. Yet the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] will not be able to become independent of A-bian," Hsu said.
Hsu mentioned that back when Chen was still Taipei mayor, his appearance in legislative election campaigns would usually cause great excitement in the crowd. The Chen-supporting crowd, consequently, would often decide to support the DPP.
Hsu also used Chen's charismatic popularity to mock Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"Although Ma's appearance at the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates' campaigns would be a plus for the candidates, Ma cannot represent the KMT anymore," Hsu said.
Ma's image as a clean politician, Hsu said, could no longer be linked with the KMT's black-gold politics.
"The KMT cannot offer Ma a platform to absorb support for him, and if the KMT performs poorly in this election, it will hurt Ma badly," Hsu said.
Hsu said that in Tainan City, the pan-green forces were appealing to the public, offering the simple concept of a pan-green majority in the legislature to help Chen's administration.
"I reckon that we have the potential to solicit more votes in Tainan City, and the extra votes will help our final legislator-at-large seats. But I estimate that despite the extra votes, we do not have the potential to win an extra seat, so I insisted we only nominate four seats in Tainan City, although a top party official suggested we nominate five," Hsu said, relating the strategy of the Tainan City legislative campaign.
Hsu also mocked the pan-blue candidates, saying they did not know what they were fighting for because KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
"The pan-blue candidates now are fighting only for themselves, and their own power," Hsu said.
Hsu also spoke about his administration in Tainan City.
He appealed to hi-tech companies, highlighting Tainan's relative stability, and said that the completion of the high speed railway next year would help improve the city's economy.
"Tainan City rarely suffers from natural disasters or power failures, and living conditions are much better than those in Tainan County, so Tainan City is even actually a better choice for high-tech companies than Tainan County," Hsu said, when asked about the prospect Tainan City can offer to the high-tech companies.
While many know of Tainan County's Southern Taiwan Science Park, few are aware of Tainan City's Industrial Technology Park.
"After we transformed the old industrial park into a high-tech park, the park now accommodates 140 companies, which are producing NT$ 7 billion worth of goods. It is amazing growth in a short time," Hsu said.
Development of the high-tech park began in 1996.
Hsu said that according to recent polls, if the Tainan area had a good high-tech park, 60 percent of employees in its Hsinchu counterpart would be happy to work in Tainan and move back to the south.
"This would be a huge change in the economic domain in Taiwan," he said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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