Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) yesterday accused Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) of “ruining the city's economy.”
At a press conference to launch her campaign office, Huang said Chen had failed to improve the city's economy because of her focus on “political ideology.”
PHOTO: CNA
“For example, when everyone in the city was gearing up for a boost in tourism, Chen invited the Dalai Lama to visit and aired a documentary about [Uighur dissident] Rebiya Kadeer in Kaohsiung,” Huang said.
Huang was referring to an invitation extended by seven Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayors and county commissioners to the Tibetan spiritual leader after Typhoon Morakot devastated the southern part of the country in August last year, and the city government's decision to air The 10 Conditions of Love, a 53-minute documentary on Kadeer and her fight to improve human rights in Xinjiang in September.
Huang said Kaohsiung's unemployment rate had topped the list of cities and counties over the past decade, with the latest figures putting unemployment at 5.9 percent.
She said that passenger volume at Kaohsiung International Airport had also been in decline, which she said showed that the city was losing its allure rather than developing.
A number of senior KMT politicians, including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and former Kaohsiung City Council speaker Chen Tien-mao (陳田錨), voiced their support for Huang at the press conference.
Wang said he hoped the party would overwhelm the DPP in the November election the same way it did during the 2008 legislative election in Kaohsiung County.
Meanwhile, Chen's campaign office highlighted the mayor's achievements in developing the cultural and film industry and attracting investors to the city.
Office deputy director Ting Yun-kong (丁允恭) said Chen had attracted businesses such as Sony and Shogakukan to invest in Kaohsiung.
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