With the The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) main candidates on the Nov. 29 elections trailing in opinion polls, the party might suspend routine presentations on government policies by ministers during its weekly Central Standing Committee meetings, and replace them with presentations of campaign platforms by the party’s nominees, party sources said.
A source said that Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) would make the first presentation, and the party plans to invite the media to report on the event.
After 13 years as Taichung mayor, Hu is preparing for another four years in office.
Surveys conducted by Chinese-language media outlets have shown Hu lagging behind the Democratic Progressive Party contender, Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).
Party sources said that in the past, the KMT held Central Standing Committee meetings at different locations nationwide to help candidates, but the party leadership found that the practice had limited effect and so decided to have candidates attend meetings in Taipei.
Meanwhile, KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) has called for a collaboration between him and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who is also running for re-election, KMT headquarters will arrange for an event in which Chu and Lien will jointly present their campaign platforms for cooperation between the two cities, sources said.
The two camps are now in talks about the idea, sources said, adding that the intercity campaign model could applied to other areas if needed.
Taking one character each from Lien and Chu’s Chinese names, the KMT calls the Lien-Chu collaboration as “Sheng-li cooperation” (勝立連線 “cooperation for victory”), as “sheng li” sounds like “victory” in Chinese.”
There have been rumors that the KMT will begin a combined campaign for Taipei and New Taipei City on Wednesday, but KMT spokesman Chen Yi-hsin (陳以信) yesterday denied the reports, saying the joint campaign is still under discussion.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS