With the latest poll showing rivals for the Taipei mayoral seat running neck-and-neck, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday stepped up his criticism of prosecutors, saying their high-profile raids of city government offices in relation to the Xinsheng Overpass scandal was costing him vital voter support.
Hau blamed the searches for the drop in his support rate in recent polls conducted by his campaign team, and said he was willing to take a polygraph or handwriting test to facilitate the investigation.
“I am willing to accept the prosecutors’ orders if they want me to take a lie detector or handwriting test. I would step down immediately if I were found to be involved in the scandal,” he said on the sidelines of the opening ceremony for the Uni-Hankyu Mall near Taipei City Hall.
Hau, of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), said that in polls conducted by his team, his support rate dropped significantly every time news about the prosecutors’ searches of the Taipei City Government came out.
A poll released by TVBS cable television station yesterday found Hau had a support rate of 43 percent, while DPP candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) was behind by only 1 point, receiving 42 percent support.
Hau said the election outlook in the mayoral election has been a tug of war between him and Su, and he would spare no effort to win the support of Taipei voters.
He confirmed that he has taken a more aggressive stance toward the prosecutors’ moves because of concern about the investigation’s impact on the election.
“I absolutely respect the judiciary, but I expect the judiciary not to intervene in politics,” Hau said.
The mayor promised on Wednesday to resign if he was found to have been involved in the scandal. He made the pledge after Taipei District prosecutors alleged that Taipei City Secretariat Director Yang Hsi-an (楊錫安) contacted the owner of a construction company before the firm won a tender for the Xinsheng Overpass reconstruction project.
They said Yang might also be involved in the purchase of allegedly overpriced flowers for the project, and searched his office and residence to collect information.
Commenting on Hau’s combative stance, Su slammed the mayor for worrying about his election campaign, and urged him to explain the problematic flower purchase plans for the overpass project.
“The elections are all that are on Hau’s mind right now,” DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said. “He still hasn’t apologized for the [allegations] that his administration’s secretary-general was deeply involved in the scandal.”
Lin called on prosecutors’ to speed up their investigation over the scandal, adding that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration “should not turn around when they meet one of their own.”
Additional reporting by Vincent Y. Chao
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
RSS