Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday accused an overseas consulate official of publishing insulting remarks about Taiwanese.
Kuan said Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英), director of the information division at Taiwan’s representative office in Toronto, had written numerous articles in which he defamed Taiwan and insulted Taiwanese people.
The legislator said Kuo, under the pen name Fan Lan-chin (范蘭欽), had used insulting terms in his articles to refer to Taiwanese, such as taibazi (台巴子, meaning “Taiwanese rednecks”) or wokou (倭寇, meaning “Japanese pirates”).
‘RIDICULOUS’
Kuo also made numerous “ridiculous” remarks in his articles, such as saying that “[China] should spend many years suppressing [people in Taiwan] instead of granting any political freedom [to them] once it has taken Taiwan by force,” Kuan said.
She said that Kuo had also claimed that “the imposition of martial law had been a benevolent act of the then government” and that “the Maokong Gondola is problematic because it was sabotaged by Taiwanese independence [activists].”
Kuan said she discovered that Kuo was using “Fan Lan-chin” as a pen name because he had previously submitted a piece in Fan’s name to the Chinese-language China Times for a supplement on Aug. 2, 2006, and also included his real name.
She urged Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) to look into the matter immediately and punish Kuo for publicly vilifying the nation and voicing support for a Chinese military crackdown on Taiwan.
Su was unavailable for comment yesterday, but he confirmed on Wednesday that Kuo was a staffer at the nation’s Toronto office.
INVESTIGATION
The GIO minister promised to launch a GIO investigation into the matter, saying that Kuo might have violated the principle of administrative impartiality if he had in fact written the articles.
GIO Vice Minister Hsu Chiu-huang (許秋煌) told the Taipei Times Kuo said that he and “a group of friends” shared the pen name.
Hsu said that, for now, the GIO would not punish Kuo if it turns out he had written the articles, on the principle of personal freedom of speech.
However, Hsu said the GIO would continue to evaluate Kuo based on his job performance in promoting the nation’s international publicity efforts.
Hsu said he had asked Kuo to speak and act cautiously and told him that his personal life should never get in the way of his official duties.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS