People First Party (PFP) presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday expressed confidence in his ability to win votes in Miaoli County after he was greeted by several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidates during his visit to a former commissioner of the traditional KMT stronghold.
Soong paid a visit to former county commissioner Fu Hsueh-peng (傅學鵬), a local heavyweight with a strong grassroots political network, at Fu’s home in Gongguan Township (公館) yesterday morning, which was packed with hundreds of Soong’s supporters and KMT members.
Miaoli County Council deputy speaker Chen Ming-chao (陳明朝) of the KMT, KMT legislative candidate Hsu Chih-jung (徐志榮) and Chiu Li-li (邱俐俐), executive officer to KMT Legislator Chen Chao-ming (陳超明), were among the crowd.
Fu praised Soong for his leadership and execution capability during his term as Taiwan’s provincial governor, urging voters to rise above political affiliations in next year’s presidential race and support someone with the ability to actually govern.
“Apparently, I flipped Miaoli. Many [KMT] local heavyweights have chosen to come out to support me,” Soong said, before singing Hakka folk songs.
Soong said he plans to put individuals of Hakka origin in significant positions in the coalition government he promised to establish if elected for the top office and vowed to reinvigorate the Hakka spirit and culture.
Soong later visited former vice president Li Yuan-zu (李元簇) of the KMT, who also openly threw his support behind the PFP candidate.
KMT Miaoli County executive committee director Liu Ming-jen (劉明仁) said that all of the party’s county councilors and borough wardens present were only there due to their personal ties with Fu.
Liu added that all of them informed the party in advance of their plans to attend the event.
The attendance of KMT members and pan-blue vote brokers at Soong’s campaign events over the past few weeks has reportedly unnerved the ruling party, which has interpreted Soong’s moves as an attempt to lure pan-blue political figures into his party’s fold.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) has recently repeatedly called for unity and cooperation, as several members have “jumped ship” to the PFP.
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS