By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) went back out on the campaign trail yesterday, heading to coastal areas of central Taiwan and the south.
Beginning in Changhua County, a five-day campaign tour will take Tsai and her entourage along Highway No. 17, also known as the Western Coastal Highway, and on to the counties of Yunlin and Chiayi, as well as Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung.
“The coastal areas Tsai will visit are the regions that developed the earliest in Taiwan’s history,” DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
“However, after all these years they are the lesser-developed areas,” he said.
“Tsai wants to address this issue and listen to what local people have to say,” he said.
The region is rich in its religious culture and faith in Matsu, the Taoist goddess of the sea, as well as its fishing and aquaculture industry, he said.
Underemployment, underdevelopment, stagnant local economies and perennial flooding in lowland areas are also among the issues Tsai would address during her trip, as well as campaigning for the DPP’s legislative candidates in various districts, he said.
As for the first nationally televised presidential debate on Saturday, Tsai believed she had performed “pretty well,” Chen said.
While in Changhua yesterday, Tsai met Tianjhong Township (田中) Mayor Cheng Chun-hsiung (鄭俊雄), a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Asked about the unusual meeting, Cheng said he was willing to meet anyone who cares about local development and he was not afraid of being reprimanded by the KMT for his meeting with Tsai.
He told reporters that he has been disappointed at the Changhua County Government’s lack of action on improving local infrastructure.