Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice presidential candidate Jennifer Wang (王如玄) yesterday downplayed New Power Party (NPP) legislative candidate Freddy Lim’s (林昶佐) attempt to discredit KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) by associating him with Wang, who has been dogged by controversies concerning her sales of military dependents’ housing units.
Lim is seeking to replace Lin in Taipei’s fifth electoral constituency, which covers Zhongzheng (中正) and Wanhua (萬華) districts.
“Supporting Jennifer Wang is tantamount to supporting labor workers, women and children. It requires our collective effort to support the disadvantaged,” Wang said on the sidelines of a morning news conference at the KMT headquarters to promote a 3D interactive postcard for the KMT’s presidential ticket.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Wang said that she joined the race so that she could do something for the many underprivileged people in Taiwan.
“Hence, supporting Jennifer Wang is a good thing,” she said.
Wang was responding to questions regarding a red banner produced by Lim’s campaign office that read: “Supporting Lin Yu-fang is tantamount to supporting Jennifer Wang,” which was found hanging below one of Lin’s campaign banners on Hangzhou S Road Sec 2 in Zhongzheng earlier this week.
It is the same size and color and uses the same typeface as Lin’s banner, which bears the slogan: “Lin Yu-fang, worthy of your trust.”
Lim’s creation has aggravated Lin, who shared a picture of the apparently bantering banner on Facebook on Tuesday and lambasted Lim for “having done everything possible to provoke and going too far in bullying others.”
“If everyone resorts to smear tactics during election campaigns, it would be a humiliation for our democratic politics,” Lin said yesterday.
Meanwhile, a supporter of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative candidate Chen Wen-pin (陳文彬) yesterday hung a billboard in Changhua County’s Hemei Township (和美) featuring a picture of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and a slogan reading: “Please support them to prove I have done no wrong.”
The billboard was placed in the middle of two campaign posters depicting Chen’s rival in Changhua’s first electoral constituency, KMT Legislator Wang Hui-mei (王惠美), with one of them also showing Chu.
Wang Hui-mei said she called the police and demanded the immediate removal of what she called a “slanderous letter.”
Additional reporting by Lin Liang-che
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but