Two more Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members yesterday registered for its New Taipei City mayoral primary, with one vowing to form a maritime self-defense force to defend the rights of Taiwanese fishermen.
Former Taipei county commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) and former New Taipei City councilor Ching Chieh-shou (金介壽) submitted their applications on the last day of registration, bringing the party’s total number of candidates for the mayoral election in November to three.
New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) completed his registration on Monday.
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
Setting his sights on making New Taipei City better than the nation’s capital, Chou said he would form a cooperative and competitive relationship with the next Taipei mayor.
“New Taipei City has 1.5 million more people than Taipei and 7.5 times more land, but our [annual] budget is NT$12.6 billion [US$430.7 million] less than that allocated to the capital,” Chou said, vowing to make sure that New Taipei City residents no longer consider themselves as second-class citizens.
Ching focused his campaign on fishermen, saying that the city is home to 34 harbors, five fishermen’s associations and thousands of fishermen.
Taking pride in being the first Taiwanese to set foot on and raise the Republic of China flag on one of the contested Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in 1996, Ching said that, if elected, he would create a maritime self-defense force, or even hire mercenary ships from the US, France or Africa to protect Taiwanese working at sea.
According to the KMT headquarters’ timetable, representatives of the party’s New Taipei City chapter are to meet with the three aspirants before Tuesday next week to discuss follow-up arrangements, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said.
“They will jointly determine whether they want to have a policy presentation, as well as how many and which polling companies they intend to entrust with conducting public opinion polls,” Hung said.
The primary poll results for New Taipei City — the only one of the nation’s six special municipalities that is governed by a KMT member — are expected to be announced on March 26, Hung said.
As for the other special municipality mayoral races where the KMT has yet to nominate a candidate, Hung said the survey results for the Taoyuan primary would be made public on March 19, while the primaries for Tainan, Kaohsiung and Taipei are still being planned.
The KMT nominated Legislator Lu Hsiu-yen (盧秀燕) as its Taichung mayoral candidate on Tuesday last week.
Additional reporting by Lai Hsiao-tung and CNA
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS