President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in his capacity as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, spent yesterday campaigning for KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), seeking to keep the city under the party’s control amid a tight battle.
Ma spent the whole morning campaigning for Hau, accompanying him to meet with local voters in Huannan Market, Baoan Temple, Dihua Street and the Xiahai City God Temple.
“We are calling for Taipei residents to support Mayor Hau’s re-election bid. Mayor Hau continued municipal projects that I left behind for him, and he is doing a better job than me,” Ma said after visiting Huan-nan Market.
Later, while attending an event celebrating the KMT’s 116th anniversary at his campaign headquarters, Hau said that he faces a tough battle, but only through electing him and other KMT candidates in Saturday’s election can the nation’s economy continue to grow.
“The nation’s economic growth rate reached 9.98 percent this year and the KMT must win the elections to continue this great achievement,” he said.
Former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), who also attended the event to campaign for Hau, acknowledged there is a deadlock situation in the Taipei mayoral race and he urged party members to take the elections more seriously because of the implications for the KMT’s future.
“The municipality elections will create a domino effect and if we do poorly in the elections, it’ll be very difficult for us to boost the party’s momentum in the presidential election,” Wu said.
Throughout the campaign, Hau has been threatened by his Democratic Progressive Party mayoral candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who is popular among pan-green supporters and has successfully attracted younger voters with fresh campaign strategies.
Over concern about the -Taipei mayoral race, the KMT has stepped up its efforts to campaign for Hau. In addition to holding a large-scale march today to boost Hau’s support, the KMT has also scheduled Ma to stump for Hau every day leading up to the election on Saturday.
Su yesterday shrugged off the KMT chairman’s heavy campaigning for Hau and said voters in Taipei will choose a capable candidate regardless of political affiliations.
“Mayor Hau has the support of the president and I have the support of the Taipei residents,” Su said.
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.
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
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody