As part of its election campaign, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday established a "tractor team" which will tour agricultural centers around the country with the promise of improving farmers' lives and building up the agriculture industry.
The "Taiwan Tractor Team," whose members include former Council of Agriculture chairman Lin Hsiang-neng (林享能) and Jan Che (詹澈), a pro-KMT member of the Taiwan Farmers' Alliance, is set to hit the campaign trail today with a mission to explore the issues which concern farmers most.
Jan, the team leader, introduced a white paper on six policies to "save Taiwanese farmers." These include exporting agricultural products to China, striving for decent retirement pensions for farmers, and conducting land reforms to help farmers adapt to WTO rules.
"The [former] KMT government carried out policies such as deducting rent on farms [from taxation] and giving land back to the farmers. Those policies protected farmers from being exploited by landlords," Jan said.
"Now farmers' incomes are shrinking, and the government pensions are insufficient to improve farmers' lives," Jan added.
In addition to the tractor team, the party also unveiled a print-media advertising campaign titled "From Ilha Formosa to Jeju Island," which features allegations of corruption in the Democratic Progressive Party government.
Offering an indirect boost to the KMT campaign, People First Party (PFP) members in the Taipei city council called on their party to persuade PFP candidates struggling with poor approval ratings to drop out of the race.
"The year-end elections are crucial for the pan-blue camp, and we should not lose any seats which we have a significant chance of winning," PFP Councilor Dai Hsi-chin (
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
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