Authorities yesterday said they were investigating comments posted online allegedly threatening to bomb Pxmart (全聯實業) supermarkets in Taipei City and New Taipei City after the company head made comments about young people spending beyond their means.
The police said a post on Thursday afternoon on the Bahamut forum by a netizen named “Left-wing Agent,” which allegedly threatened indiscriminate bombings at Pxmart supermarkets, breached Article 305 of the Criminal Code.
“I will blow up anyone who goes to Pxmart,” the comment said.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Investigators would track down the author of the post via the IP address and forum registration information, police said, adding that the person responsible would be questioned.
The alleged bomb threat was in response to Pxmart Co Ltd president Hsu Chung-jen’s (徐重仁) comments regarding low salaries.
Hsu said at a book launch on Thursday that young people complain about low wages, but spend beyond their means on trips abroad, the latest mobile phones and the newest accessories.
“Young people like to spend money and are more commonly seen at international airports than their parents’ generation was,” Hsu said.
“Everyone wants to spend more, but they should not spend what they do not have,” he said.
Hsu said that when he joined the workforce in 1977, he made only NT$9,000 per month and had to balance his salary against a mortgage and daily necessities.
While life was tough, “it was a temporary situation, as the boss would give you a raise if you worked hard,” he said.
Hsu later posted an apology on Facebook after sparking a backlash among young people.
He said he misspoke and his words were not ill-intentioned, but were too didactic — spoken in a tone more appropriate for a father addressing his son.
Hsu said the incident led him to reflect whether he — and those of his generation — tend to pass judgement too quickly on the younger generation.
Hsu said he hoped to speak less, listen more, and seek to understand the younger generation, adding that maybe his apology would dispel the notion that Taiwanese bosses never admit to error.
Hsu’s apology earned favor among netizens, with some jokingly asking for a raise from a Pxmart Facebook group administrator.
However, some netizens were not in a forgiving mood.
They said that Hsu’s words were like criticizing people in the town square and apologizing in an alley.
Meanwhile, Pxmart said that business yesterday was normal and there had not been any impact from Hsu’s comments.
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
RSS