Former President 
Tsai Ing-wen praised outgoing Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai's mayoral record as "transformation achieved, growth people can feel" at the launch of his new book in the city on Sunday. Of Lai Jui-lung, the Democratic Progressive Party's candidate for Kaohsiung mayor and the next runner in the relay, she said her expectation was that he would take over the baton of transformation from Chen and make growth even better, CNA reported. Former Premier Su Tseng-chang and Lai also attended the launch of the book, titled "高雄，緊緊緊" and subtitled "2,314 Days of Extreme Transformation."
In her speech, Tsai said some people had called Chen a "desperado" for working as if his life depended on it, while Lai was very likely one who "works himself to the bone," unafraid of fatigue. A handover is not a copy, she said, but a matter of securing what the previous leg built and carrying Kaohsiung into its next stage. "Chen Chi-mai has written this chapter brilliantly, and now someone has to keep writing it," she said, hoping everyone would together catch Kaohsiung's baton steadily and keep moving forward.
Su, in remarks carried by CNA, said that when he sought the party's presidential nomination in 2011, Chen told him as soon as they met: "I can't possibly support you, I support Tsai Ing-wen." The two later worked together at the Executive Yuan, and Su said that Chen, having already returned to its cabinet meetings once as mayor, would in his view come back to them again in future, "but probably in a different seat, sitting very near the front."
Chen said he had learned from Tsai and Su how a statesman should get things done and find ways through difficulty, and that Kaohsiung may be the last stop of his political career, CNA reported. He recounted a fan asking whether he could run again, and said he had replied that although his name would not be on the ballot, "when you see Lai Jui-lung's name on it, just stamp it." Lai said many people had seen him as a rather dull politician with relatively low presence, but that like Chen he had been working hard to improve himself. He said he would go all out to make the sequel for Kaohsiung even more exciting, and asked Chen to "remember to take Lai Jui-lung's calls" if his microphone grows bigger in future.
Figures referenced: Tsai Ing-wen. — JudgeMarket.
