◎ Chi Ming
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan has frequently demonstrated his astonishing "harvesting skills" in recent municipal debates and interviews. (File photo)
Mayor Jiang Wanan has frequently demonstrated his astonishing "harvesting skills" in recent municipal debates and interviews. From forcing the Taiwanese baseball team to win the top 12 championship, to claiming to have helped Huida settle down, and claiming to be the leader in the campus fresh milk policy, the repeated speeches make people wonder: Could it be that the city government team cannot produce real materials and can only rely on putting money on their faces to boost themselves? How is the method of packaging political achievements with false information essentially different from the cognitive warfare that attempts to confuse Taiwanese society in recent years?
In terms of investment promotion and campus policies, Mayor Jiang's "time and space confusion" has been repeatedly slapped in the face. He claimed to have personally arranged for Huida to settle in Beishike, but was exposed by insiders. Huida had signed an MOU with Xinshou in May 2025. Instead, it was the political considerations of the Beishike government that delayed the whole case. The city government actually twisted the "resistance that almost screwed up" into "the push that it personally facilitated." As for the policy of drinking fresh milk for all students, he even proudly asked Tainan City to follow Taipei's lead at the debate. Little did he know that Tainan and Chiayi County had already promoted the dairy policy for school children many years ago, and Taipei only launched it last year. He actually had the nerve to preach to counties and cities that have implemented it for many years. This is completely self-aggrandizing and confusing.
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Jiang Wanan claimed that he personally arranged for Huida to settle in Beishike, but insiders revealed that this was not true. The picture shows Huida Beishike Base. (File photo)
What is even more chilling is that such an exaggerated governance style has completely screwed up the handling of major municipal crises. Regarding the Baolin Tea Room case that resulted in six deaths, Mayor Jiang claimed that the city government had the evidence immediately so that Baolin could not escape and the families of the victims could receive compensation. The truth is that the Beijing Municipal Government did not implement the false seizure at the first time. By the time it came time to recover the 3.5 million fine and compensation, the assets of the person in charge had already been wiped out. The so-called "cannot run away" actually means that the business owners have not paid a dime. The compensation for the family members is paid by the public accident liability insurance insured by the department store and food court. What does it have to do with the city government?
In 2024, a food safety incident at the Baolin Tea House occurred in Bei City, resulting in six deaths. The Bei City Government did not implement a false seizure at the first time, and the assets of the person in charge had already been emptied. The picture shows Baolin Teahouse. (File photo)
Extreme experts climb 101 and win the championship with Taiwanese heroes, which is the pride of people's hard work. Mayor Chiang forcibly harvested these achievements into the "Taipei spirit" of governance. He even rushed to announce an increase in baseball championship bonuses, but later found out that there was not even a player registered in Taipei City on the representative team. The embarrassment of wanting to take advantage but unwilling to do his homework was fully revealed.
Faced with the food safety crisis and municipal construction that are at stake for human lives, lies have been used one after another to cover up the implementation of the plan. Even an inspection of the maternal and child hospital revealed the ridiculous behavior of not wearing a mask when sick, and holding a "fake baby" to show off for photos. It is no wonder that political achievements are all packaged with false information. Taiwan is already a mature democratic society. What the people need is down-to-earth policy implementation, rather than reviving the god-making techniques of the authoritarian period. If Chiang's team's political achievements are limited to gossiping and seeking publicity, the public will really not be able to tolerate the "others are eating rice noodles while Mayor Chiang is shouting fire" style of governance.
(The author is a teacher)
