TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - On the occasion of Children’s Day Thursday, former Premier William Lai (賴清德) published a picture from his childhood on his Facebook page.
Because he was so poor growing up in Wanli on Taiwan’s north coast, he said he was more than ever convinced of the importance of education.
In the black-and-white picture, Lai is shown barefoot in a tree smiling at the camera.
As premier, he always valued educational policies and legislated for the expansion of public schools, an increase in funding for children up to the age of four, and tax cuts for parents, Lai said on Facebook.
While he said that maybe, the government had not done enough, the former premier said he would continue to pay attention to education as an investment in the next generation.
Lai is competing with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nomination for the January 11, 2020 presidential election.
As a special five-member panel is trying to bring the two sides closer together, DPP officials said Wednesday they were trying to arrange a meeting between the former premier and the president, though no date has been announced yet.