Leading doctors yesterday affirmed the medical profession's traditional support for the pan-green camp, describing a recent pro-blue camp advertisement featuring former National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital superintendent Yang Ssu-piao (
"NTU hospital has always been like a Democratic Progressive Party support community. I'd say the ratio of [President] Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) supporters to [Chinese Nationalist Party Chairman] Lien Chan (連戰) supporters is about nine to one," said Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
The medical community has traditionally been viewed as a stronghold of the pan-green camp.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
However, in the advertisement on the front page of Monday's edition of the Liberty Times, Yang wrote:
"The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China are both a part of China. They are not two separate countries, nor are they two countries on each side of the Taiwan Strait."
Yesterday, around 60 prominent members of the medical community, including Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance president Wu Shuh-min (
"If he paid for the advertisement himself, then I might be able to respect him a little more. However, I suspect that is not the case here," Twu said.
"I love my old teacher, but I love truth more," he said.
Twu also said that he spoke for the views of former DOH head Lee Ming-liang (李明亮), who was unable to attend.
While Yang's wife told reporters yesterday that he had shelled out a total of NT$200,000 for the advertisement, the Liberty Times advertising department said that the advertisement had been sold for NT$600,000.
"I wrote the open letter that was published in the newspaper because I have been very disappointed with the Chen administration these past four years," Yang said.
"I definitely did not take money from anyone to do this," he said.
He added that if Lien did not perform well in office it would be appropriate to support another candidate in the future.
But Yang's comments did not satisfy one medical professional.
"Yang is the medical community's equivalent of Buddhist Master Wei Chueh (
"And as such, I trust that his attempts will backfire just as they did for the monk," he said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS