Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan recently announced the idea of relocating Songshan Airport and plans to build a 300-hectare "Taipei AI Park". At the same time, in an exclusive interview with media personality Tang Xianglong, he talked about the "irrationality" of voters and political opposition, sparking discussion. In this regard, the Facebook fan post "Voice and Politics" pointed out that by throwing out major construction projects when the poll gap was narrowing, Chiang Kai-shek was probably trying to shift the focus of the election campaign from the governance achievements of the past four years to the urban vision for the next ten years. He even turned policy disputes into political offense and defense by loosening the power and responsibility of the central government.
According to the PO article of the fan blog "Voice and Politics", according to the latest TVBS poll, Jiang Wanan's support is 49%, and Shen Boyang's support is 41%. The gap between the two parties has narrowed from 28 percentage points in May to 8 percentage points. Jiang Wanan believes that this is the result of the gradual return of blue and green supporters as the election campaign heats up. However, polls also show that the support for Jiang Wanan among neutral voters dropped from 57% to 40%, while that for Shen Boyang increased from 14% to 36%. This shows that the change is not just about the regrouping of the basic base, but also about the support among centrist voters. People's support intentions also changed. At this time, Jiang Wanan proposed the idea of Songji relocation and AI park. In addition to declaring the vision of urban development, it could also transfer the outside world's examination of governance issues such as nutritious lunches, transportation construction, and public safety to future industrial development and urban planning. However, the relocation of Songshan Airport involves central agencies such as the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Interior, and is not a unilateral decision made by the Taipei City Government.
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Fanzhuan pointed out that after Jiang Wanan announced the policy, the Ministry of Transportation stated that the Beijing Municipal Government had not discussed the relocation of Songji in the past four years. The Ministry of Interior also mentioned that the city government did not coordinate the issue of Songshan Station of the Air Service Corps in advance. Now Jiang Wanan has extended the power demand of the AI park to nuclear power policy, making the relocation of Songji from a local construction issue to a political attack and defense between the central and local governments.
The fan blog continued that the comments also revealed that when Wu Yinong proposed the relocation of Songshan Airport in 2022, Jiang Wanan emphasized that land planning must be carefully evaluated, and Wang Hongwei also questioned the national defense issues involved in the dual-use airport. Now it is Jiang Wanan who proposes an idea in the same direction, but the Kuomintang legislator expresses support for it, causing commentators to question whether the policy evaluation criteria have also changed because of the different proposers.
Fan Zhuan analyzed that on the one hand, Jiang Wanan proposed long-term visions such as AI parks and urban development, but on the other hand, he lamented that voters were irrational in an exclusive interview, trying to create an image that he valued construction and that his opponents were in political opposition with the outside world. However, if voters change their support targets due to their performance in governance, or require the city government to explain the budget, timetable and feasibility of Songji relocation, this is normal democratic supervision and should not be regarded as irrational.
Fanzhuan bluntly said that it is okay for the mayor to propose a major construction vision, but the policy review of the past four years cannot be replaced by plans for the next ten years. If the relocation of Songshan Airport is to gain support, Jiang Wanan must still propose a complete feasibility assessment, inter-ministerial coordination and implementation plan, instead of turning all external policy doubts into political offense and defense.
