Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday continued his marathon of temple visits on the second day of the Lunar New Year holiday, greeting temple-goers and distributing “lucky money” despite the discovery of a death threat at Taipei City Hall on Thursday.
“Doctors also face risks. Sometimes you’ll cut yourself and could get infected with hepatitis B or C or even HIV, but no one would say that because of this you should not practice medicine,” said Ko, former head of National Taiwan University Hospital’s Department of Traumatology.
“We will take whatever preventive measures are necessary, but we will still do what we need to do,” he said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Tu Ying-hui (杜英輝), director of Taipei City Hall’s Public Affairs Management Center, said that a crumpled piece of recycled paper with repeated scrawled threats to kill the mayor was found on Thursday on the ground outside the building’s Family Theater.
Parts of the building have remained open to the public during the holiday, with no new restrictions planned, he said.
The note is the second reported death threat Ko has received, following a threatening phone call last month. While Ko was photographed riding the MRT unaccompanied shortly after taking office in December, he later said he would reduce such trips due to safety concerns.
The Taipei Police Department said that additional measures had been taken to protect Ko’s safety, but no additional body guards would be dispatched.
The threatening note has been sent to the police department for appraisal, while city hall surveillance cameras will be examined to attempt to determine who left it.
Many other political figures also continued their visits to temples yesterday, where they distributed red envelopes and New Year’s blessings.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) also visited Ma Village (馬家庄) in Miaoli County’s Tongsiao Township (通霄).
While most of the village’s residents are surnamed Ma, none of the president’s ancestors or relatives have ever lived there.
Ma started paying homage at Ma Village on the second day of the Lunar New Year 19 years ago after he learned about it.
Additional reporting by staff writer
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS