While New Party presidential candidate Li Ao (
In what he said "could be his farewell speech," Li urged supporters to back independent James Soong (宋楚瑜), saying he was the least harmful of the three leading contenders.
Li has held around 1 percent of public approval ratings through the duration of the race and refused to join the party he was running for.
"When I'm dead, you'll miss me, miss me, miss me," he said.
Li dealt a few parting shots yesterday, comparing himself to a "tampon" who had been used by the political establishment.
"There's a joke about a man who got a magic lamp with a genie inside and made three wishes. His first wish was to live in a palace, and suddenly he was living in a fabulous mansion. His second wish was to have piles of gold, and the genie granted it. His third wish was to spend the rest of his life between a woman's legs. The genie turned him into a tampon," he said.
Colorful rhetoric laced with vulgarity has consistently been a part of Li's campaign. His official platform as listed at the Central Election Commission reads: "Taiwan gets an erection, makes advances toward China, then `Viagras' the whole world."
In his speech yesterday, he advocated that Taiwan unite with China under the "one country, two systems" model so that Taiwan would have a place to send its nuclear waste.
Independent Hsu, formerly a chairman of the DPP, promoted his ticket as a "fourth choice" unbound by constrictions of party or ethnic origin. His running mate, Josephine Chu (朱惠良), is of mainland origin and a former member of the New Party.
The three main contenders remain bound by "19th century thinking about the meaning of nation-states," he said.
"If on March 18 voters continue to vote for candidates with old-fashioned ideas, then Taiwan is really in trouble," Hsu said.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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