Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and more than 70 Taipei City Government officials yesterday arrived in Pingtung County on a two-day trip that Ko says is about exchanging administrative experiences and tourism.
After meeting with Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) and county government officials, the two parties listened to reports on their respective administrations in areas including culture, labor, youth innovation and tourism.
Ko and the officials also visited the Craftsman Residential District, an old dormitory area renovated for young entrepreneurs to rent as creative studios, an inclusive playground in a public park, Victorystar Creative Village and the Pingtung Performing Arts Center.
Photo: Lo Hsin-chen, Taipei Times
As Ko has been visiting other counties and cities more frequently over the weekends, reporters asked him whether the visit to Pingtung was to gather support for the presidential election.
“It’s not for soliciting votes. It is for exchanging administrative experiences and tourism,” he said.
An opinion poll released on Friday showed that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) support rate has increased to nearly 40 percent if she runs for president against Ko, or either Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) or Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), who are both Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hopefuls.
Ko previously said no one would dare challenge Tsai if she had a support rate of more than 40 percent.
Yesterday, he said that opinion polls are like stock prices that fluctuate up and down.
Ko on Thursday complained about the Investment Commission’s decision to rejected Nan Hai Corp’s bid to build the Taipei Twin Towers project, saying that the central government’s “national sovereignty” concerns were “bullshit.”
Tsai on Friday said that national sovereignty is very important, because democracy, freedom and human rights can only be protected by sovereignty.
Ko yesterday said that he does not like Tsai “using national security as a disguise and interpreting it whatever way she likes.”
No one said national security was not important, Ko added.
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