With the five special municipality elections less than one month away, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he would step up his campaign for Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who is running neck-and-neck with Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), his opponent from the Democratic Progressive Party.
Ma spent the afternoon shooting his weekly video address at the Taipei Story House to promote the achievements of Hau, who succeeded him as Taipei mayor, describing him as someone who was “as good a mayor as he [Ma] was.”
The Taipei Story House is located next to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, one of the exhibition venues for the Taipei International Flora Expo.
While the high-profile flora expo has been a keystone in Hau’s re-election bid, his campaign to return to office has been threatened by controversies surrounding flowers purchased for the expo as well as overpriced materials for the upgrading of the Xinsheng Overpass, with a number of city government officials under investigation for corruption.
To give Hau a boost, Ma said he would visit the flora expo sites on Friday evening.
Today, Ma, who is also the Chinese Nationalist party (KMT) chairman, will preside over the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting at Shezi Island (社子島) in Taipei City.
Shezi Island is a low-lying area that has constantly been hit by flooding during typhoons. It is also the site of many illegal houses.
Hau pledged in January this year to turn the 240-hectare area into “Taipei’s Manhattan” within 11 years after a long-stalled development project passed a review by the Council for Economic Planning and Development.
Urban development has been another cornerstone of Hau’s election bid. KMT Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) yesterday said the party decided to hold the Central Standing Committee meeting in Shezidao to show the party’s concern for the future development of the area.
Committee members will also wear polo shirts bearing the flora expo logo to show their support for Hau and the expo, he said.
Hau, who has been invited to speak at the meeting, will outline his achievements over the four years and his blueprint for the future.
Also today, the MRT Lujhou Line connecting Taipei City and Taipei County’s Lujhou (蘆洲) and Sanchong (三重) cities will begin a trial service, with Ma scheduled to attend the opening ceremony.
Service on the line will be free until Dec. 2, a move that has been criticized by some as a gambit to garner support for Hau in the Nov. 27 election.
Trial services for other MRT lines either provided free rides to residents in the area or offered free services for only several hours a day.
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
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