DPP presidential candidate William Lai has hit out at Lu Shiow-yen’s mayoral administration in Taichung over the Blue Line of the Taichung MRT. Lai alleged that the stops along the line were adjusted in order to please “powerful people'' in Taichung. This has, in turn, been denied by the Lu administration...
The Taichung mayoral debate took place on November 15th. This report will focus on the two primary candidates, incumbent Lu Shiow-yen of the KMT and challenger Tsai Chi-chang of the DPP. As with many of the other debates that have been held in the course of the election, there were three rounds. The first round consisted of opening statements, the second round consisted of questions from a panel of experts, and the third round consisted of closing statements...
An unusual controversy has broken out regarding drones in the Taichung mayoral race. In particular, the KMT’s mayoral candidate, Lu Shiow-yen, is accusing her opponent Tsai Chi-chang of the DPP of interfering in a campaign event through the use of drones...
With the Tsai administration announcing that Taiwan would be open to imports of ractopamine-treated meat, it is unsurprising that this has led to backlash in Taiwan. The issue is likely to lead to contestation between central and local governments in Taiwan...
An abortive alliance between Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je, former KMT majority speaker Wang Jinpyng, and FoxConn CEO Terry Gou seems to have sputtered out, following comments by Ko in which he denigrated the other two before a planned meeting that was to take place last Sunday. Although unlikely, talk is also on the rise of the KMT potentially replacing Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu as its presidential candidate in 2020 elections, with the KMT demonstrating some unusual splits regarding Han...
In the past month, the Nantou city government has filed a lawsuit against the state-owned Taipower Corporation. This is on the grounds that air pollution from the coal-burning Taichung Power Plant is causing the high death rate from lung cancer in Nantou county. Interestingly, the Taichung city government has backed Nantou county’s lawsuit against the Taipower Corporation...
The "September Political Struggle" between former president Ma Ying-Jeou and former majority speaker Wang Jinpyng is again back in the news, with Wang and Ma publicly trading barbs after the release of a new book by Ma detailing his presidential administration and defending past actions. The reemergence of these tensions perhaps points to the major splits within the KMT at present...
With mayorship of all of Taiwan’s six special municipalities up for the vote in 2018 local elections, the DPP looks like it may have a tough time holding onto its current political dominance in four out of the six municipalities. Some take the view that DPP losses in these municipalities will allow the KMT to rebuild momentum, which is why DPP losses could be worrying...
KMT Legislator Lu Shiow-yen’s remarks comparing violence in France and Syria to cross-strait relations has incurred the wrath of Taiwan’s powerful Anti-President Ma and Anti-KMT Facebook fan pages...
