Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials yesterday acknowledged that concern was growing among KMT supporters about President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) chances of re-election.
Presidential national policy adviser Chen Ting-yun (陳釘雲) said he has heard of such worries among KMT supporters, adding that the controversy over Ma’s recent proposals of a cross-strait peace accord and small raises in monthly subsidies for elderly farmers is seen as harmful to Ma’s electoral outlook.
He was referring to Ma’s controversial proposal last month that his government would “cautiously consider” whether the nation should sign a peace agreement with China within the next decade, and the Cabinet’s proposed small increase in the monthly subsidies for elderly farmers from NT$6,000 to NT$6,316.
Despite Chen’s estimates last month that Ma would be able to lead Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) by 300,000 to 500,000 votes in the election, Chen yesterday said that if nothing was done to contain the damage over the subsidy and cross-strait peace agreement issues, “it is going to go bad for Ma.”
Other KMT officials said that Ma’s proposed cross-strait peace accord has caused a backlash on Ma’s campaign efforts, adding that some pan-blue supporters who are pro-localization have said that they could not accept Ma’s proposal.
The rashness of his proposal has some KMT supporters worried that Taiwan would hold political negotiations with China too soon, several party officials said, adding that the rashness of the proposal was also directly to blame for Ma backtracking on his statements.
Chen said that in the past, the farmland irrigation associations usually backed the KMT, but seeing as there was a support group for Tsai founded by the Chia-Nan Water Resources Association last month, the DPP have started to compete with the KMT for the support of the sector.
The elderly farmers’ subsidy issue further shook the confidence of the sector in the KMT, Chen said, adding that these are all changing factors that must be closely watched.
KMT honorary chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) has also recently made public warnings that Ma’s re-election campaign is “getting tight,” with the DPP closing the gap between Tsai and Ma.
Tsai’s campaign tour along Provincial Highway No. 1 last month and the “three little pigs” campaign have all contributed to soaring support and passion for the DPP, KMT officials said.
Translated by Jake Chung
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
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
RSS