President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking re-election next month, yesterday launched another home-stay trip at a local fruit grower’s house in the Dongshih District (東勢) of Greater Taichung, seeking to consolidate his support in the crucial city ahead of the presidential election.
Ma spent a night at the house of local farmer Chan Te-sen (詹德森), a board member of the Taichung Agriculture Association, and met with a group of local farmers to discuss agricultural issues, including the price of locally grown fruits and the export of agricultural products to China under the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
“Taichung was my first stop when I launched my long-stay trips during the 2008 presidential election campaign when I stayed at a teacher’s house in the city,” Ma said when discussing the home-stay experience before visiting Chan.
“I’ve become friends with most of the families I have stayed with during the long-stay trips and [home stay] is a great way to better understand local issues,” Ma said.
The president also had rice dumpling with the farmers to celebrate the upcoming winter solstice, also known as the Dongzhi Festival (冬至).
The home-stay last night was Ma’s second stay in Taichung’s Fongyuan District (豐原).
He had stayed at the home of a local farmer in the district last month, followed by another overnight trip to a National University of Kaohsiung dormitory last month.
Taichung is deemed as a key city for Ma’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the presidential and legislative elections after the party almost lost the city to the Democratic Progressive Party in last year’s special municipality elections.
KMT Culture and Communication Committee director Chuang Po-chun (莊伯仲) said Ma’s stay in Taichung would help boost the president’s momentum in central Taiwan and consolidate support for the party’s legislative candidates.
Ma is scheduled to visit Chan’s grape orchard this morning and canvass at a local market to attempt to solicit voters’ support. He is scheduled for more home-stay trips next week, Ma’s re-election campaign office said.
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday said it would delay the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, citing public health considerations and ongoing discussions on how the policy should be implemented. Earlier this week, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said officials from several ministries were working on the policy and an announcement would be made yesterday. However, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, yesterday said that the policy was still under review. Wang said its implementation would be “delayed slightly” due to three main factors. First, the center
END OF SERIES: As the first generation of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are set to expire, the CECC would no longer offer them to children younger than four years old The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of a person infected with the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2. The Taiwanese man in his 20s arrived from Canada on Jan. 22, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division. He tested positive after reporting having a runny nose and muscle soreness while in airport quarantine, Lo said. The XBB.1.5 subvariant is the dominant strain in the US, but there is no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness than other Omicron subvariants, he said,
NORMALIZING TIES: The delegation led by the KMT’s Johnny Chiang is to meet with British lawmakers, think tanks and business groups to discuss developments A legislative delegation led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) arrived in the UK yesterday to rally support for Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Chiang heads the Legislative Yuan’s Taiwan-UK Interparliamentary Amity Association. The delegation also includes KMT legislators Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞), Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), Sandy Yu (游毓蘭) and Wu I-ding (吳怡玎). The group is to meet with British lawmakers Alicia Kearns, who chairs the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House Defence Select Committee; and Bob Stewart, who cochairs the