Although governmental authorities insist that their recent actions toward independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) — including inspecting his tax records and saying it is inappropriate and illegal for Ko’s wife to take part in campaign events — are completely legal and in “accordance with the law,” it is hard for people to not see such moves as being politically motivated.
Following the failure of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien’s (連勝文) purported campaign to discredit Ko by questioning his use of National Taiwan University Hospital bank accounts last month, the National Taxation Bureau of Taipei launched an inspection of Ko’s tax records.
Although the tax authority defended the move as a “routine inspection” resulting from anonymous tips it received about fees Ko was paid for giving speeches, the probe still drew much criticism from the public, with many panning it as politically motivated.
Yet it seemed the KMT government still had not learned its lesson. Over the weekend, Ko’s wife, Chen Pei-chi (陳佩琪), took part in a campaign event while her husband was away in the US. Afterwards, the Taipei City Government immediately said that Chen was in violation of the Public Servant Administrative Neutrality Act (公務人員行政中立法), which prohibits government employees campaigning publicly for a candidate, saying that since Chen is a doctor at a public hospital, she is technically a government employee.
The latest attack renewed public criticism, with many again condemning it as a political tactic.
To quell the rising criticism, Taipei Mayoral Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday said that, considering that Chen is Ko’s wife, the city government should not be so strict in passing judgement in this case.
Although all the authorities that launched probes or made accusations against Ko have defended their actions as them following the law, it is difficult not to think that politics are the true motivation.
Certainly, the Pubic Servant Administrative Neutrality Act prohibits government workers from taking part in election events, but it does allow the spouse or immediate family members of a candidate to attend campaign events, though they are banned from “advertising” or “endorsing” a candidate.
So what does constitute “advertising” or “endorsing” a candidate? Did it count as advertising or endorsing when Chen appeared in a crowded market, escorted by Ko’s campaign staff and a city councilor candidate? Is it advertisement or endorsement when Chen says: “Please support my husband”?
The legal aspect of this issue may be complicated and the central or local election authorities usually decide if anyone is in violation of administrative neutrality or the Election and Recall Act for Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法). Hence, while the city government accused Chen of acting inappropriately and illegally, it is the one acting inappropriately and illegally, as officials have no right to declare Chen’s actions illegal before the case has been carefully examined and discussed.
In each election, there are dozens of violations of electoral laws, but these are always announced after central or local election commissions conduct case-by-case examinations, which nearly always take place after elections.
Investigations into other matters — such as tax evasion — too, are usually conducted quietly and their results announced only until after the election, unless the evidence is air-tight. It is therefore highly reasonable to suspect that the latest accusation made by the Taipei City Government, the tax evasion investigation and the hospital account claims were all meant to project a negative image of Ko to voters.
The image was oddly quiet. No speeches, no flags, no dramatic announcements — just a Chinese cargo ship cutting through arctic ice and arriving in Britain in October. The Istanbul Bridge completed a journey that once existed only in theory, shaving weeks off traditional shipping routes. On paper, it was a story about efficiency. In strategic terms, it was about timing. Much like politics, arriving early matters. Especially when the route, the rules and the traffic are still undefined. For years, global politics has trained us to watch the loud moments: warships in the Taiwan Strait, sanctions announced at news conferences, leaders trading
The saga of Sarah Dzafce, the disgraced former Miss Finland, is far more significant than a mere beauty pageant controversy. It serves as a potent and painful contemporary lesson in global cultural ethics and the absolute necessity of racial respect. Her public career was instantly pulverized not by a lapse in judgement, but by a deliberate act of racial hostility, the flames of which swiftly encircled the globe. The offensive action was simple, yet profoundly provocative: a 15-second video in which Dzafce performed the infamous “slanted eyes” gesture — a crude, historically loaded caricature of East Asian features used in Western
Is a new foreign partner for Taiwan emerging in the Middle East? Last week, Taiwanese media reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, a country with whom Taiwan has long shared unofficial relations but which has approached those relations cautiously. In the wake of China’s implicit but clear support for Hamas and Iran in the wake of the October 2023 assault on Israel, Jerusalem’s calculus may be changing. Both small countries facing literal existential threats, Israel and Taiwan have much to gain from closer ties. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, President William
A stabbing attack inside and near two busy Taipei MRT stations on Friday evening shocked the nation and made headlines in many foreign and local news media, as such indiscriminate attacks are rare in Taiwan. Four people died, including the 27-year-old suspect, and 11 people sustained injuries. At Taipei Main Station, the suspect threw smoke grenades near two exits and fatally stabbed one person who tried to stop him. He later made his way to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he threw more smoke grenades and fatally stabbed a person on a scooter by the roadside.
RSS