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.
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the