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.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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