Faced with the public outcry and criticism from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday pulled a cartoon designed to promote a proposed trade agreement with China.
Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) had earlier apologized for the controversy surrounding the cartoon to promote the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing.
The ministry said in a statement yesterday that “personnel responsible for the cartoon campaign shall be reprimanded and transferred to other departments.”
Yiin apologized again for the cartoon yesterday, but said he hoped it would not distract from the crucial issue of inking an ECFA with China to aid Taiwan's economic development.
Introduced on July 20, the ECFA cartoon was criticized for ethnic stereotyping. Yi-ge (一哥) was described as a 45-year-old Hoklo-speaking man from Tainan, a vocational school graduate who works as a salesman in an unspecified traditional industry and who knows very little about the ECFA. His counterpart, Fa-sao (發嫂), was described as a 40-year-old Hakka woman from Hsinchu who works as a supervisor in a trading company, is fluent in English, Mandarin, Hoklo and Japanese, and is eager to learn about the ECFA.
Yiin again disassociated himself from the incident, saying he had no knowledge of the development of the two characters as he was attending the APEC meeting in Singapore at the time.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) welcomed the removal of the cartoon, but said the deeper problem was the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) habitual use of negative ads.
Acting DPP Spokesman Chao Tie-lin (趙天麟) alleged that the KMT had a track record of using negative campaigns, ranging from the use of profanity to public defamation. He also criticized Yiin for handing out demerits to officials who oversaw the project.
“On a large-scale project such as the [ECFA] cartoon, entry-level staff have virtually no say in [its creation]. Yiin is the minister and it was his ministry that published the cartoon, which means Yiin should be punished before he starts pointing the finger at others,” Chao said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Thinktank chairman Chen Po-chih (陳博志), who had accused the ministry of fabricating the results of an impact assessment report on the ECFA, yesterday rejected Yiin's demand for an apology and challenged him to an open debate instead.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS