Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday challenged Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to a TV debate, and urged Tsai to respond to difficult issues — especially those related to cross-strait ties.
Hung made the comments during a visit to an urban renewal project in New Taipei City alongside New Taipei City Mayor and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫).
In response to media queries over whether she would feel confident about taking on Tsai in a public debate, Hung said that every candidate should take the opportunity to discuss their ideas.
“Things can be sorted out by debate, and people can then make their decisions accordingly,” she said.
It is said that Sanlih Television has secured the consent of Hung and People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) to appear in a televised debate, but is still waiting for the agreement of Tsai.
Hung said she has not just consented to appearing in a debate with Tsai, but would welcome the opportunity, adding that she cannot understand “why Tsai has been dodging it.”
Tsai has been reluctant to appear in a debate because she “does not have a policy direction, which makes it difficult for her to hold her own in a debate,” Hung claimed.
Hung said the most pressing issue on any debate between the two would be cross-strait ties.
“While there are many issues on public welfare that could be discussed, the presidential candidates basically have similar views on public welfare,” Hung said. “But the cross-strait policy is about the nation’s future direction, which is extremely important.”
Asked whether the KMT planned to hold major campaign rallies — as the DPP has been doing for Tsai, with the upper echelons of the KMT in attendance, Chu said what matters the most is visiting local residents.
“Going to different places in a day, and … visiting constituencies personally is actually better than holding big campaign events,” he said.
Separately yesterday, Tsai rebutted criticism from Hung that she had declined to appear on a televised debate.
“Debate is an important part of a presidential campaign, and I have been preparing for it, but the timing is more appropriate after all the candidates have registered — that is how it has always been in the past,” Tsai said.
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.