Ann Kao (高虹安) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) was yesterday elected mayor of Hsinchu, defeating the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Shen Hui-hung (沈慧虹) and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Lin Ken-jeng (林耕仁).
Kao, 38, declared victory at about 7:30pm. She is to become the first female mayor of Hsinchu and the youngest mayor or county commissioner ever elected in Taiwan.
Shen, who trailed Kao by 10,000 votes, conceded defeat before the final results were confirmed and congratulated Kao on her win.
Photo: CNA
Although the race was expected to be close, Lin lagged behind the other two candidates by a large margin as results began coming in after 4pm and conceded defeat.
In her victory speech, Kao thanked her parents, relatives, friends, supporters, campaign team and volunteers, as well as her opponents, who she said “proposed many good political platforms during the campaign and showed good sportsmanship.”
Calling her win “a victory for all Hsinchu residents and democracy,” she vowed to form a team based on merit and not political ideology, and to build Hsinchu into a city that makes people “feel happy and proud.”
She also said she would consider her opponents policy proposals and ask for their advice after taking office to ensure Hsinchu residents are prioritized under her leadership, she said.
Kao’s victory put the TPP in charge of a city that was governed by the KMT from 2005 to 2014 before the DPP took power, holding the office under former Hsinchu mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅), who resigned in July to contest the Taoyuan mayoral election.
Lin Chih-chien withdrew from that race after National Taiwan University revoked his master’s degree over charges of plagiarism in August.
Lin Chih-chien defeated his KMT opponent, former Hsinchu mayor Hsu Ming-tsai (許明財), in 2014 and won re-election in 2018 by a large margin over the same opponent, by 49.57 percent of the votes and 27.87 percent respectively.
The Hsinchu mayor’s office is a major win for the TPP, which was founded in 2019 and participated in local elections for the first time this year.
With a background in computer science and information engineering, Kao has worked at the Institute for Information Industry and Foxconn Technology Group’s Industrial Big Data Office.
As a legislator, she attracted attention for her proficiency in data analysis.
Her candidacy went through a rough campaign after she was accused of plagiarism in her doctoral thesis and of collecting a corporate salary while working at a government-affiliated institute.
She was on Thursday last week listed as a suspect in case after being accused by former assistants of making illegal payroll deductions and using public funds for personal gain, although her campaign spokeswoman, Hsu Chien-ching (徐千晴), said that being named was a “normal procedure when a case is launched by prosecutors.”
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS