Su Ching-chuan registers bid for Pingtung county chief, sharply criticizes government failures

Su Ching-chuan registered as a candidate for Pingtung county chief, accompanied by Kuomintang Vice Chairman Lee Chien-lung, Pingtung City Mayor Chou Chia-chi and more than 10 county councilors. He used the occasion to launch a broad attack on the county government’s performance.

Su criticized officials for holding daily events and fireworks while schools faced staffing shortages. He said 242 elementary and junior-high teachers retired this year, yet substitute teachers remained unavailable after the school term began. Five or six classrooms, he claimed, still lacked teachers, leaving parents worried about keeping their children in Pingtung.

He linked that concern to the county’s population decline, saying it had fallen from 910,000 to 770,000. “People cannot be retained here,” he said, questioning whether the slogan “I am Pingtung, I am proud” matched residents’ experience.

Su also attacked flood-control work. He said the central government had allocated more than NT$20 billion for flood prevention in Pingtung over more than a decade, but the embankment along the Linluo drainage channel had broken four times in five years. He called it a possible substandard project and said heavy rainfall should not be used as an excuse, noting that an embankment along the Donggang River managed by the central government had not failed.

On social policy, Su said the county had initially rejected his proposals to waive health insurance premiums for people aged 65 and older and provide free school lunches, citing a lack of money. He accused officials of adopting similar measures only after elections approached. If elected, he pledged to match Taipei and New Taipei’s lunch subsidies, which he said amount to NT$90 for elementary pupils and NT$92 for junior-high students, compared with NT$50 and NT$55 in Pingtung. He also said more than 160 speed cameras had generated NT$5 billion in annual fines before being removed after his questioning in the Legislative Yuan.