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.
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RSS