The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is to hold a large campaign rally in Taichung on Sunday to leverage its strong showing in the special municipalities, with all six of its mayoral candidates in the municipalities to speak, a party source said.
The event is likely to be hosted by KMT Deputy Secretary-General Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) and draw at least 10,000 people, the source said, adding that several KMT heavyweights have agreed to attend.
KMT Taichung mayoral candidate Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) on the same day is to open her campaign headquarters in Taichung with the slogan “winning in 2018 from Taichung,” with the special municipality seen as a bellwether by the KMT, the source said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
On Double Ten National Day on Wednesday, the party is to launch a national anthem singing event to salute the Republic of China and remember founder Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), the source said.
The event is to be organized by patriotic group the Songtao Society, among others, they said.
A campaign rally is planned for Retrocession Day on Oct. 25, when all of the KMT’s local chapters and candidates are expected to commemorate the party’s contributions to Taiwan, the source said, adding that there could be more events.
New Taipei City is “almost a done deal” as long as KMT New Taipei City mayoral candidate Hou You-yi’s (侯友宜) camp does not make any mistakes, retaining its lead over Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rival Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), the source said.
Lu is leading Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in opinion polls, but within the margin of error, the source said.
While KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) is trailing independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) slightly, Ting’s approval rating could increase by 5 percentage points, as long as he can win back borderline KMT supporters who have swayed toward Ko, the source said.
That, coupled with Ting’s estimated support base of 40 percent of all constituents, could win Taipei, as long as DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Pasuya Yao’s (姚文智) campaign does not fall apart and Yao wins 15 percent of the vote, the source said.
Meanwhile, KMT Kaohisung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) camp is confident that he would surpass his DPP opponent, Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), by the middle of the month, the source said.
Considering Han’s weaker support among voters aged 60 or more, the source said the KMT is to ask Han to speak at local temples to inculcate in older voters the message that the DPP has ruled Kaohsiung for more than 20 years and it is time for a change in leadership.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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