A Chinese-American porn star recently caught on camera parading around naked in the streets of Taipei is more than one city councilor can bear.
The starlet, known as Kiko Wu, recently doffed her clothes during the daytime in Taipei's bustling Hsimenting shopping area and at the Warner Village complex last month. She was also spotted running around naked in scenic Tamshui.
That has infuriated KMT councilwoman Chen Li-hui (陳孋輝), who said Wu pulled the stunt in a effort to boost sales at her pornographic Internet site, www.kikowu.com.
In addition, police sources said yesterday that Wu could be expelled from the country the next time she attempts such "obscene and offensive" behavior during a visit to Taiwan.
But Wu denied that she was raking in the dough as a result of her recent visit to Taiwan. She said Taiwanese surfers account for only 0.5 percent of visitors to her Web site, and most just download pictures and few are members.
"It is unfortunate that Ms Chen would resort to waving my pictures in front of TV cameras in an attempt to distract the Taiwanese from the very real issues they face," Wu said in a press release yesterday.
"I can only wonder, does she truly imagine that this is the most important issue facing women in Taiwan at the moment? Perhaps she thinks that all the barber shops in Taipei just cut hair? Or that all of the 16-year-old girls walking around Hsimenting in the evenings are just shopping?"
Wu said that far more serious issues face Taiwan women, but they are being ignored. "There are thousands of Taiwanese women who are forced by unemployment to put food on the table in far worse ways than I do. Where is their voice? Their `voice' it seems is too busy worrying about one American to champion the cause of those thousands of Taiwanese women."
The city councilor said an angry mother had contacted her to complain about Wu, saying the starlet had stripped out of her clothes right in front of her and her little boy when they went to a movie in Hsimenting.
"How could the police just sit back and do nothing?" Chen said during a press conference yesterday.
Officials from Taipei City Police Headquarters said any future naked romps through the city would be handled according to the nation's Social Order Maintenance Law (
Wu said that while the photos were taken in public, she had done all she could to avoid letting younger children see her.
"I was extremely careful about shooting the images. I only shot during school hours to ensure that I was not seen by any children," she said. "And despite many, many requests, I absolutely refused to shoot near any memorials or Buddhist shrines. I have too much respect for Taiwanese culture and people to do that."
According to Chen, Wu is planning another photo shoot, this time in front of Hsingtienkung (
But Wu's press release said she has no plans to return to Taiwan in the near future. She called the controversy a "fruitless attempt to apprehend a dangerous menace to society in the form of a 41kg Chinese girl. Truly Ms Chen is a leader who knows how to use her power wisely."
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
HIGH-TECH DEAL: Chipmakers that expand in the US would be able to import up to 2.5 times their new capacity with no extra tariffs during an approved construction period Taiwan aims to build a “democratic” high-tech supply chain with the US and form a strategic artificial intelligence (AI) partnership under the new tariffs deal it sealed with Washington last week, Taipei’s top negotiator in the talks said yesterday. US President Donald Trump has pushed Taiwan, a major producer of semiconductors which runs a large trade surplus with the US, to invest more in the US, specifically in chips that power AI. Under the terms of the long-negotiated deal, chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) that expand US production would incur a lower tariff on semiconductors or related manufacturing