The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chose former premier Simon Chang (張善政) as its candidate for Taoyuan mayor at a closed-door meeting yesterday.
Speaking after the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said the decision was made based on “who can bring change to the city” rather than “who was interested in running.”
Chu was likely referring to former Taipei city councilor Lo Chih-chiang of the KMT (羅智強), who last week resigned his post to seek the party’s nomination for Taoyuan mayor. KMT Secretary-General Justin Huang (黃健庭) at the time called Lo’s decision “regrettable.”
Lo yesterday in a social media post wrote that he was “shocked” and “stunned” by news of Chang’s nomination, adding that he mostly felt sorry for his supporters, rather than himself.
The news also came as a surprise to KMT legislators Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲) and Lu Ming-che (魯明哲).
Lu Yu-ling in a statement described the nomination process as an “unfathomable and unacceptable ambush” that had damaged the reputation of the KMT.
She said the decision would undermine local support for the party and prove detrimental to its chances of winning November’s election.
Lu Ming-che said he would campaign for Chang, because he had the credentials to serve as a competent mayor.
Chu thanked all of the candidates who had sought the party’s nomination and said he hopes they will now rally around Chang, whose background in engineering, high-tech industry and government made him “capable of turning Taoyuan into an Asian Silicon Valley.”
Before entering politics in 2012, Chang obtained a doctoral degree in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University. He worked for several tech companies, most notably serving as director of Google’s hardware operations in Asia.
After joining then-president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government as a minister without portfolio, Chang went on to serve as minister of science and technology, vice premier and then briefly premier before the KMT lost power in May 2016.
Chang was also former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) running mate in the 2020 presidential election.
Speaking to reporters following his nomination, Chang said that “from this moment on, my fellow Taoyuan residents and I are a community of shared destiny on the same boat.”
With a population of 2.27 million people, Taoyuan is Taiwan’s fifth-most populous municipality and is home to many industrial parks and high-tech companies.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been governing the city since 2014, when what was then Taoyuan County was upgraded to a special municipality.
Taoyuan had been considered a KMT stronghold beginning in 2001, when Chu won the local election.
Chu was replaced by John Wu (吳志揚) in 2009, who served for five years before losing to the DPP’s Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) in 2014.
The DPP is yet to announce a candidate, with Cheng, re-elected by a comfortable margin in 2018, barred from running for a third term.
Hualien County Commissioner Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚) and Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) have secured the KMT’s nomination to run for re-election in their respective constituencies.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that a surge in respiratory illnesses in China has been caused by at least seven types of pathogens, and small children, elderly people and immunocompromised people should temporarily avoid unnecessary visits to China. The recent outbreak of respiratory illnesses in China is mainly in the north and among children, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said on Monday. Data released by the Chinese National Health Commission on Sunday showed that among children aged one to four, the main pathogens were influenza viruses and rhinoviruses, while among children aged five to 14, the main pathogens
A New Taipei City hotpot restaurant could be fined after a rat dropped from the ceiling and landed on a customer’s plate last week, the New Taipei City Department of Health said yesterday after conducting an inspection. A woman recently posted on the “I am a Banciao resident” (我是板橋人) social media group saying that she had been eating with a friend at Chien Tu Shabu Shabu Hotpot Restaurant’s Shuangshi B branch in Banciao District (板橋). “While still eating, a big rat suddenly dropped down from the ceiling, landing on a plate next to a hotpot,” she said. “Later on, a member of
A new poll of Taiwanese voters found the top opposition candidate for president jumping past the ruling party’s hopeful into the lead position ahead of January’s election — the latest twist in a drama-filled race. Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) had an approval rating of 31.9 percent versus 29.2 percent for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed. The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), ranked third with 23.6 percent, according to the survey conducted
Actress Hu Ling (胡伶) on Saturday became the first Chinese movie star to walk the red carpet of the Golden Horse Awards since 2019, when China boycotted Taiwan’s biggest awards show over political tensions. Beijing banned its entertainers from joining the awards, dubbed the Chinese-language Oscars, after documentary director Fu Yu (傅榆) voiced support for Taiwan’s formal independence in an acceptance speech in 2018. There were no films from China in the 2019 nomination list and several Hong Kong movies dropped out that year, while several big commercial productions were conspicuously absent at both the 2020 and 2021 awards. However, Hu, nominated for
RSS