Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) yesterday called for unified support for his colleague Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), who is expected to receive the KMT’s official nomination as its Taichung mayoral candidate today.
Lu earlier this month edged out Chiang by a narrow margin of about 0.6 percent in opinion polls for the party’s primary for the mayoral post, securing a support rating of 50.308 percent against Chiang’s 49.692 percent.
“The 0.6 margin does not and will not change my love for Taichung. I will not be absent from a campaign that would shape the city’s future development,” Chiang said on Facebook after former Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) paid him a visit at his residence in Taichung earlier yesterday.
Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times, from Johnny Chiang’s Facebook profile
The KMT’s Taichung mayoral candidate would no doubt do their utmost to form a strong campaign team in the hope of winning back the municipality, one that he said would not only include himself, but many other talented people, Chiang said.
“Though Lu and I have yet to go into the details about the lineup of her campaign team and the position [I would hold], I will keep an open mind and prioritize the bigger picture over formality,” Chiang said.
The key for the KMT taking back Taichung is to provide voters in the city with a clearer and more effective blueprint for the future, so as to set the party apart from Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung’s (林佳龍) slogan-centered style of leadership, Chiang said.
Chiang said he is confident that Lu would do a better job than him and asked members of the KMT Central Standing Committee to throw their unified support behind Lu and nominate her as the party’s Taichung mayoral candidate at a today’s committee meeting.
Hu was Taichung mayor from 2001 to 2014, before losing to the Democratic Progressive Party’s Lin by about 200,000 votes in the 2014 nine-in-one local elections.
The merger of Taichung City and Taichung County in 2010 allowed Hu to bypass the two-term limit and run for mayor of the special municipality that year.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said a magnitude 4.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of eastern Taiwan yesterday was an independent event and part of a stress-adjustment process. The earthquake occurred at 4:47pm, with its epicenter at sea about 45.4km south of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 5.9km, the CWA said. The quake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in several townships in Yilan and neighboring Hualien County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the CWA said. Lin Po-yu (林柏佑), a division chief at the CWA's Seismological Center, told a news conference
RSS