A dozen younger prospective Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates for the Nov. 24 city and county councilor elections yesterday established a youth coalition, urging party headquarters to give young party members more visibility.
The Young Blue Power (藍色新力量) coalition was launched at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan amid renewed calls for increased youth participation, echoing similar voices after the KMT’s poor showing in the local and presidential races in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
The coalition consists of 12 aspiring KMT candidates for city and county councilor positions in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taichung and Kaohsiung, and Nantou, Chiayi and Taitung counties.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Noteworthy members include KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) office spokeswoman Yu Shu-hui (游淑慧), who hopes to run in Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港) districts; New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) secretary Chiang I-chen (江怡臻), who is vying to stand in that city’s Tucheng (土城), Shulin (樹林), Sansia (三峽) and Yingge (鶯歌) districts; and former KMT spokesman Hu Wen-chi (胡文琦), who is vying for a seat in the city’s Yonghe District (永和).
“The KMT must stand alongside these young candidates. It should also make an effort to cultivate young talent, and encourage young people to participate in politics and contribute to Taiwan,” New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said at the event.
If elected, young candidates would remember the reasons that motivated them to run for public office and never cease to speak up for the “silent majority,” Hou said.
He also used the event to call on the public to support his election bid, as the KMT is to conduct opinion polls for New Taipei City’s mayoral primary election from today to Thursday.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖), who was elected Taipei city councilor at the age of 32 in 1989, said the party has not done enough to provide a podium for its talented young members to shine.
Although the event was held to announce the new coalition, it somewhat lost focus due to the presence of Hou and Chen, who on Wednesday last week won the KMT’s nomination for the Taoyuan mayoral election.
The seven coalition members who attended the event jointly expressed their support for Hou, who is competing against two other prospective candidates, including former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋).
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai