The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) “three little pigs” fundraising campaign raised more than NT$200 million (US$6.6 million) in political donations from 143,000 piggy banks returned, the party said yesterday.
The DPP announced the completion of the money-counting during a press conference at DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national campaign headquarters in Banciao District (板橋), New Taipei City (新北市).
The party said that a total of NT$201.2 million was raised from the piggy bank donations.
“Each and every penny of the donations symbolizes people’s disappointment in the incumbent government and their desire for a fair and just society,” DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
The party launched the campaign on Oct. 25 in the wake of a warning from the Control Yuan, that the DPP’s acceptance of three piggy banks from a set of young triplets could constitute a violation of the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法).
The DPP distributed more than 200,000 piggy banks as the campaign grew in popularity. The 143,000 piggy banks returned by supporters to campaign headquarters in cities and counties across the nation were brought to Banciao on Dec. 18 last year, their designated “homecoming day.”
Counting the money was a difficult task. It required 150 volunteers to work on 12 hole-punching machines, 52 coin sorting machines and six coin counters 12 hours a day — a total of more than 3,000 man-hours — for 20 consecutive days, Lin said.
The campaign was the DPP and the public’s answer to the “asymmetrical elections” in which the party is competing against the -“ultra-rich” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections, another campaign spokesperson, Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君), said.
The DPP was also deeply touched by the many notes written by donors to express their feelings for the party and Tsai that they found in the piggy banks, Cheng said.
“I am sorry. This is the best I can do, because I need to save some money to feed my family,” Cheng read a message from a donor of a poor family.
A supporter from Lujhou District (蘆洲), New Taipei City, was asked by a 90-year-old friend surnamed Lin from Sanchong (三重), who did not know where to return the piggy bank, to hand in his donation.
“Chairperson Tsai would not feel tired if she knew how difficult it was for Mr Lin to ride on a tricycle from Sanchong to Lujhou to deliver this piggy bank,” the supporter wrote.
“The DPP is grateful to all donors, volunteers, staff members and truck drivers who had made a contribution to the most successful micro-fundraising campaign in Taiwan to date,” Cheng said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the