Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), son of former KMT vice chairman John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) and grandson of former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), is considered a possible candidate to run for Taipei mayor next year, party sources said.
Despite saying he has not made any plans to run for Taipei mayor, Chiang Wan-an, 38, spoke about his vision for the city and criticized independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) administration.
“Ko has been mayor for two years and has no major achievement to show for it, with the exception of demolishing a ramp connecting to Zhongxiao Bridge (忠孝橋) and reducing city budgets,” Chiang Wan-an said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Many Taipei residents and borough wardens said Ko’s administration should be constructing facilities for the city instead of wasting its energy on the Taipei Dome project, Chiang Wan-an said.
Residents of Zhongshan District (中山) and the northern part of Songshan District (松山), whom he represents at the legislature, are split on the proposed relocation of Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), he said.
“Moving Songshan airport is not something to be taken lightly and should be considered from the perspective of national needs,” he said.
The evaluation for moving Songshan airport should wait until the completion of a new runway and Terminal 3 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chiang Wan-an said.
The city also needs to think carefully about what to do with the vacated land, he said.
Chiang Wan-an said he has close relations with the city’s councilors, wardens and residents, adding that many young voters told him that they are concerned about low wages and bleak employment prospects in the city.
Chiang Wan-an said he is a father and works with the If Kids Theater Company (如果兒童劇團) to entertain children on his days off.
The theater puts him in touch with Taipei parents and many of them say that the city does not have enough public childcare facilities, he said.
Taipei should lead the nation in innovation and high-tech businesses by becoming a “digital city,” which would boost employment and start-ups, he added.
In response to questions about his views on his grandfather’s policies, Chiang Wan-an said: “Chiang Ching-kuo’s attitude of being close to the public is worthy of emulation. I am technologically inclined and identify with young people in that regard. I use online media to promote policies and hold the government to account. My age group is close to younger voters. I have worked many years in Silicone Valley. My experiences are those of a modern society and my team members are young people. I do not try to consciously imitate my grandfather.”
When asked whether he would run for Taipei mayor for the KMT, he said: “I have not given it thought and my attention is on the legislature. I have not made plans for participating in that election.”
Chiang Wan-an said the KMT has a good chance of returning to power in Taipei because the city’s voter base is favorable to the pan-blue camp.
“Ko’s victory was a result of capturing centrist voters, but he is losing them quickly. As long as the KMT nominates a candidate through a fair process that can unite the party behind the nominee, it stands an excellent chance of electing the mayor of the capital city,” he said.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read: