The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday dismissed allegations of difficulties in its election campaign in southern cities and counties, but said the party would continue to focus on its campaign efforts in central and southern Taiwan.
The south, including Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung, have traditionally been strongholds for the pan-green camp. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking re-election, is setting up his first southern campaign office in Greater Tainan to expand his support base in the south.
Leading the election campaign in Greater Tainan, local KMT heavyweight Huang Cheng-hsiung (黃正雄) said yesterday that grassroots supporters in the city were joining efforts to campaign for Ma and that the party would arrange for Ma and his running mate, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), to make frequent visits to Greater Tainan and other parts of southern Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
Huang dismissed a report that quoted him as saying that the KMT was facing difficulties in the south and that local factions were reluctant to offer assistance in the presidential election campaign. He said party members in the south would work hard to attract more support for the KMT in the presidential and legislative elections.
“President Ma is putting a great deal of effort into southern Taiwan. Campaigning in Greater Tainan is not easy because of the merger of Tainan County and Tainan City, but we are still hoping that we can have a small lead over the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] in the city,” he said yesterday at the KMT headquarters.
In an interview with the Chinese-language China Times published yesterday, Huang was quoted as saying that local factions in Greater Tainan were reluctant to join the election campaign and that it would be difficult for Ma to repeat his victory in the city in the 2008 presidential election, in which he received 6,000 more votes in the former Tainan City than then-DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
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
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS