A Taiwanese businessman based in China ran a full-page advertisement on the front page of the Chinese-language China Times yesterday petitioning Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平) to help him solve a business despute, triggering feverish online debate.
The businessman, who identified himself as Lin Chi-wen (林啟文), accused a Hong Kong-based company of swindling him.
In the ad, Lin said he spent nearly NT$800 million (US$24 million) buying Lucheng Plaza in Xiamen, China, in August 2003, but a company called Chienming Property Co (建明房地產有限公司) re-sold the property to another Xiamen-based firm in April 2005 and took him to court on charges of breach of contract the next month.
Photo: Taipei Times
Media reports say that a full front-page ad can cost as much as NT$2 million.
Slamming the China Times, one of the many media outlets owned by the Want Want China Times Group (旺旺中時集團) — which has been at the center of recent public outcry against the monopolization of the media and is seen as being pro-China — one netizen said the newspaper appears to have become a platform through which individuals can petition the “celestial Chinese empire.”
Xi, who replaced Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) as general-secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in November last year, will assume the Chinese presidency in March.
Netizens also described the China Times as a Taiwanese version of China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper, with an other mockingly predicting that the anchors from China Central Television may soon make their debut on Want Want’s local channel CtiTV.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique