The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it was cautiously optimistic about the Greater Taichung mayoral election in November, with the party’s candidate, DPP Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), leading incumbent Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) by almost 20 percentage points in the party’s latest survey.
“In a poll conducted by the DPP three days ago, Lin enjoyed a comfortable lead of 48 percent to Hu’s 29 percent. Moreover, 45.3 percent of respondents favored Lin as the winner, with only 29.6 percent picking Hu, who is seeking re-election,” DPP spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said.
With Lin consistently leading in a series of public opinion polls, the DPP is hopeful of victory in Greater Taichung — a key constituency that DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has called a “must-win” and a barometer of the party’s success in the seven-in-one elections.
Tsai has said the DPP is targeting wins in at least nine of the 22 mayoral and commissioner races.
In Changhua County, the DPP visited former county commissioner Huang Shih-cheng (黃石城), father of independent hopeful Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲), to explore a possible collaboration, the spokesperson said.
Whether Huang Wen-ling, a former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator, agrees to a cooperation, the DPP has confidence in its own candidate, DPP Legislator Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷), Hsu said.
At a campaign strategy committee meeting yesterday, participants discussed the five remaining constituencies where the party has yet to announce candidates. They are Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, Hualien County, Kinmen County and Lienchiang County.
The committee will make a final decision on whether to nominate candidates in Kinmen, Lienchiang and Hualien counties — arguably the party’s weakest constituencies — and in the predominantly Hakka constituency of Hsinchu County, as well as Hsinchu City at a committee meeting next week.
Hsu confirmed that former Hsinchu mayor Tsai Jen-chien (蔡仁堅) is interested in running for mayor again.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
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