Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) administration plans to reshuffle its ranks to fend off a campaign to recall him, the Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine reported on Tuesday.
The restructuring began before the Lunar New Year holiday, with Cheng Chao-hsin (鄭照新), special assistant to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Jiang (江啟臣), joining as director-general of the Kaohsiung Information Bureau, while former KMT legislator Lin Li-chan (林麗蟬) was invited to serve as an adviser to the city government, the report said.
Anne Wang (王淺秋) and Peter Pan (潘恒旭), who previously headed the Information Bureau and the Tourism Bureau respectively, would not return to the team, the report said, adding that the administration hopes to reshape its image.
Photo: Hsu Li-chuen, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, Han intends to maintain a low profile during the recall campaign by focusing on governance and avoiding speaking about politics, the report said.
Han’s team intends to carefully manage his public comments to prevent perpetuating his image as a caobao (草包, “country bumpkin”), the magazine cited an aide to the city government as saying.
Recently, Han’s presence in the media has been related to prevention of the 2019 novel coronavirus, the report said.
The mayor has no intention of running in the KMT’s chairperson by-election, and does not want someone to run on his behalf, the report said, citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter.
Cheng said in the report that the city government’s most pressing matter is preventing an outbreak of the coronavirus and governing the city, adding that he believes Kaohsiung residents would “make a wise decision in the end,” referring to the recall efforts.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
RSS