It has been nearly three years since Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) took office and he yesterday released a teaser video on Facebook about his vision for the city, along with a link to a specialized Web page with statistics about his policies that he called “a report card” for the public to review.
“In the first year, we learned lessons from our mistakes, reviewed them and improved,” Ko wrote. “In the second year, we firmly held on to our beliefs, endured pressure while enforcing reform policies and gradually saw changes.”
He wrote that his team insisted on solving issues professionally, ensuring that politics make a difference in people’s daily lives and creating a just society in which people can act morally.
“We initiated a value-led political culture and brought glory to the city,” he wrote, including a link (https://glory.taipei) at the end of the post to a Web page displaying metrics of the municipal government’s performance over the past three years.
The page, titled “progressive values and glorious city,” discusses five themes: public housing reform and traditional market renewal, social welfare services for the elderly and children, the Taipei Summer Universiade, urban development through the West District Gateway and East District Gateway projects, and visiting the city’s 12 administrative districts.
The page showed that there are 1,116 public housing units in the city, but that 4,020 more units are being constructed and 12,247 units will be under construction or completed by the end of next year.
It introduced five major traditional markets that are undergoing reconstruction or are to be reconstructed and showed performance statistics, including the number of recreational centers for elderly people (377 locations) and government-funded childcare facilities (53 locations), and also showed a timeline of the West District Gateway Project and a visionary map of the future East District Gateway Project.
Ko said that a full version of the video, titled Seeing a Glorious City, would be released on his official Facebook page and YouTube channel at 7pm on Wednesday.
In related news, former Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), yesterday announced her desire to seek candidacy in the next Taipei mayoral election, saying she did not want to live a peaceful life by herself and wanted to find the strength to help Taipei progress.
Cheng said she did not know how many KMT members would contest the candidacy, but hopes the public could give the KMT “some time and space.”
She also urged the KMT to begin the nomination process right after the Lunar New Year.
Speculation yesterday flared that Premier William Lai (賴清德) might run for Taipei mayor, after reports that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is considering fielding him as its candidate, but Lai declined to give an explicit answer about his intention.
“My most important job as premier is to implement government policies, develop the economy and improve Taiwan to ensure that citizens can enjoy a better living standard,” Lai said in response to media queries. “The DPP should answer questions on the election.”
Additional reporting by Chen Wei-han
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
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
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
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
RSS