Next year's presidential election will be Chen Shui-bian's (
"I am quite happy about next year's election. The first reason is that we just had a new member of the family, small An-an [her grandson Chao Yi-an (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"The second reason is that in next year's election, no matter the outcome, it will be Chen Shui-bian's last battle. After that I don't have to campaign for him anymore," she said.
"He will be campaigning for me in the future instead," Wu, who was once a legislator, joked.
Wu made the statement during a tea party at the president's residence yesterday. The president and the first lady threw the party for physically and mentally handicapped children, Vincent Kabore from Burkina Faso and Huynh Thi Van from Vietnam who came to Taiwan for medical treatment, and "doctor dogs," which are trained to help people with various therapies.
The dogs were the stars at the party. Chen and Wu played with the dogs and Chen addressed the issue of China and Taiwan again by telling a story of his dogs, Yung-ko (
"When I look at the doctor dogs, I think of my own Yung-ko and Honey. There was one day when Yung-ko and Honey got into a fight, and I asked them what happened," Chen said.
"Yung-ko said that Honey tried to provoke him, and I thought, how would 2kg Honey have wanted to provoke 30kg Yung-ko? Then Honey told me that Yung-ko aimed his slingshot at her, and she just shouted, `don't hurt me,' and Yung-ko said it was provocation."
Wu also recounted the story of their golden retriever, Freedom. She said that when they had Freedom, they gave it the best care they could, but it died after eight months because of kidney problems.
"But my daughter saw a dog on the street one day, and it was led by a poor old man collecting garbage. It was rainy and cold, and that dog was only covered by plastic. Yet that dog seemed to survive well," Wu said.
"Sometimes people are like that. They live better when they are in an harsh environment," she said.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
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The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has been investigating nine shell companies working with Prince Holding Group, and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is seeking further prosecution of alleged criminals, a source said yesterday. The nine companies and three Taiwanese nationals were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Oct. 14 as Specially Designated Nationals as a result of a US federal court indictment. Prince Holding founder Chen Zhi (陳志) has been charged with fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding’s suspected forced-labor camps in Cambodia, the indictment says. Intelligence shared between Taiwan,
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