Controversial Democratic Pro-gressive Party (DPP) Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (
Shen was speaking during the launch of his book Always Upbeat: The Elated Life of an Outspoken Man yesterday. He suggests in the book that although he has suffered from myocardial infarction, his abilities would be not be beneath those of his competitors in any mayoral race.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Shen did not explicitly say that he would run for mayor, but he did dismiss speculation about the state of his health in the book.
"Citizens of Taipei City, are you casting votes based on a candidate's electrocardiogram and ultrasound or his capabilities?" he writes.
He expressed confidence in the way he had handled a dispute with TV talkshow host Wang Ben-hu (汪笨湖) in recent weeks by saying that his actions would be judged by voters in his Taipei electorate in December's legislative election.
"I will minimize my campaign activities, and would those DPP supporters who still cannot forgive me after reading this book please transfer their votes to other DPP candidates in my constituency," Shen said.
Shen also recited a poem he wrote recently to say that he had turned cold toward politics and the recent spat with Wang that had resulted in daily tit-for-tat attacks in the media.
"The heart is dead/The blood has turned cold/I cannot cure Mother Taiwan's illness/I don't want to either/Wave goodbye to the life which had been "always upbeat"/Spend the rest of my years "no longer upbeat"/Dying in action like Don Quixote/The horse hide to wrap my corpse is not ready/But I have already fallen," the poem read.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS