The mayoral election for Greater Tainan has been given less attention in the media than the other four municipal races because it is seen as a shoo-in for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Despite Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung’s (金溥聰) assessment on Nov. 12 that the party’s Tainan mayoral candidate Kuo Tien-tsai (郭添財) has been gaining momentum in the past few weeks, Kuo is still fighting a tough battle against his DPP counterpart William Lai (賴清德).
Greater Tainan, which will have a combined population of more than 2.7 million following the merger of Tainan City and Tainan County, has long been a DPP stronghold.
Tainan County, which is heavily populated by farmers and fishermen, has been held by the DPP since 1993 and Tainan City since 1997.
Lai’s campaign got off to a shaky start earlier this year after he defeated the five other candidates in the DPP primary — former Tainan County commissioner Mark Chen (陳唐山), legislators Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) and Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) and Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智).
After Hsu lost the primary, he was reportedly considering running as an independent, which could have destroyed Lai’s chances of winning the seat.
However, Hsu and Su later both pledged full support for Lai, who promised to continue the policies of the incumbents and develop a new metropolis based on its rich history and potential for innovation.
The KMT’s Kuo, a native of Tainan County, has tried to gain points by claiming that he knows the region better than Lai, who was born in Taipei County. Kuo brought attention to the efforts he had made to close the education and economic gap between Tainan County and northern areas of the country, drawing on his experience as a former educator.
Tainan takes pride in the fact that it was the first settlement established by the Dutch when they colonized Taiwan from 1624 to 1662.
Later, troops led by Ming Dynasty general Koxinga (國姓爺), also known as Zheng Chenggong (鄭成功), landed in Tainan in a successful assault against the Dutch. A large percentage of Tai-nan’s income is generated from tourism that is centered on visits to historical sites around the city.
Tainan County lies in the southern half of the Chianan Plain (嘉南平原), the largest piece of flat land in Taiwan on which rice and other grains are grown. The county’s residents are heavily dependent on agriculture.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV