Mark Chen (陳唐山), former Presidential Office secretary-general, yesterday said he had started working on his campaign at the grassroots level to rally voters for the year-end Tainan County commissioner race, despite his failure to clinch a nomination from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Chen, in his 70s, said his constituents gave him the highest approval rating in the nation during five of his eight years as the former Tainan County commissioner. Therefore the DPP’s decision to block him from running would likely cause a backlash among the public, he said.
Chen, along with DPP legislators Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) and Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅), vied for the nomination, but it eventually went to Lee, which ignited vehement protests from Chen.
The party ignored Chen’s repeated requests that DPP headquarters base its selection on the results of a public opinion poll. DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the decision was finalized and that all DPP members should unite behind Lee.
In an effort to woo Chen’s support, Lee asked the “old commissioner” to give the younger generation a chance on a roadside billboard.
Speaking to the media, Chen said the public viewed Lee as ill-prepared and thus the torch should be given to a more “experienced” individual.
“The deficit accrued by the Tainan County government is in the billions. Anyone would have a difficult time taking over the post. The reason why I have such high support is because the constituents have confidence in my ability to address the financial crisis,” he said, vowing a financial overhaul to build sufficient reserves for the marginalized population if he was elected.
Asked if he feared disciplinary actions from the DPP for participating in the race, Chen said: “That’s a problem for the party to handle. [My goal] is to follow the will of the people.”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching