President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will focus on a robust economy as his main campaign theme to secure enough votes for the presidential election just two months away, his campaign chief told foreign correspondents yesterday.
Faced with a narrow lead over his main challenger, Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Ma will seek to drive home the message that times have got better under his leadership, said King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), chief executive of Ma’s re-election campaign and who is widely regarded to be the president’s most trusted aide.
“In the less than two months to the vote, we’ll center our appeal on the economic issues,” King told the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents Club.
“We’ll let the voters understand that over the past more than three years the Ma administration has done more than the former government ever did. We’ll try to tell them how they’ll benefit if Ma gets re-elected,” he said.
Recent polls have shown that Ma’s lead over Tsai has narrowed considerably in recent weeks.
A survey released on Friday by the Taipei-based TVBS Poll Center found Ma leads with 39 percent to Tsai’s 38 percent, down from 38 percent compared with 35 percent a week earlier. The poll had a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.
“All statistics indicate that Taiwan’s economy is moving in a positive direction. A pity, however, that this trend has been ignored by the media and the people,” King said.
Taiwan’s economy grew by 3.37 percent in the three months to September after expanding 10.88 percent last year following a substantial drop during the global economic recession.
King also said that Ma would not engage in unification or independence talks with China if he wins in January.
King reiterated Ma’s policy of “no unification, no independence and no use of force,” even as he seeks closer ties with China.
“If Tsai wins, there will be uncertainties in cross-straits relations,” King said. “The risk factor will rise and investors could withdraw.”
Better ties with China have helped Taiwan’s relations with other countries, King said.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS