TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Facebook page set up by Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) after announcing his candidacy for Taipei City mayor has gained over 80,000 followers since Sunday evening (July 10).
On Sunday, Chen, who also serves as the head of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), announced that he would be running as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate in this year's Taipei mayoral race. Earlier that day, an DPP election strategy committee meeting convened by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who doubles as the chairwoman of the DPP, nominated Chen as its candidate for Taipei mayor.
At 6:35 p.m., on his new Facebook page TaipeiShihChung, Chen uploaded a profile photo showing himself smiling as he wears a CECC vest. This first post gained 27,000 likes, 1,900 comments, and 162 shares in the 15 hours since.
Chen's new profile photo. (Facebook, TaipeiShihChung photo)
Over the next few hours, Chen uploaded three different versions of a cover photo showing him standing in a suit with a purple tie before settling on a final version that received 22,000 likes, 694 comments, and 39 shares.
At 9:17 p.m., Chen uploaded a post in which he announced that the DPP committee had nominated him as a candidate for Taipei City mayor and wrote that "When duty calls, I will step forward. This is true of epidemic prevention, and the same is true of elections."
Chen's third cover photo. (Facebook, TaipeiShihChung photo)
Chen then expressed his thanks to Tsai and the committee for choosing him. He pledged that he would do his best to succeed in becoming the next mayor of the city and then highlighted his ties to Taipei:
"Taipei is my home. I was born here, grew up here, and also live here. I have deep feelings for Taipei City, I have expectations, I have ideas, and I know that the development of this city has been stagnant for too long."
He closed by calling on followers to join him in "winning this battle for the future of Taipei" to enable the city to move forward, for a "better Taiwan and an even better Taipei." That post gained 87,000 likes, 13,000 comments, and 1,900 shares.
Since the page's creation on Sunday, Chen's new page has gained 82,910 followers and 71,685 likes.
