None of the Kaohsiung mayoral candidates have committed to developing their city for the people.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/10/30
By: David Evans
Credit: Reuters / TPG
Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Kuomintang (KMT) candidate to be the new mayor of Kaohsiung, found himself in a bit of hot water last week. An interview he gave back in May suddenly re-emerged online in which he described Kaohsiung as being “old and poor.”
Many in Kaohsiung have understandably taken exception to this. But looking beneath his less than subtle language, Han does have a point.
Kaohsiung is poor. Under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration of Chen Chu (陳菊) and her interim successor Hsu Li-ming (許立明), the city has racked up the largest debt of any city in Taiwan. Kaohsiung currently owes a whopping NT$241 billion (US$7.78 billion). That is NT$89,500 (US$2,890) for every single person living in the city.
Kaohsiung is also an old city. Han was trying to make the point about Kaohsiung’s talented young workers departing for Taipei, or pastures even further afield, leaving the city with an aging population. But his comments could just as easily refer to the city itself.
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