The People First Party (PFP) charged yesterday that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is improperly using the political clout of major party-affiliated government officials to raise money for its candidates running in the year-end legislative elections.
Referring to recent media reports that the DPP has set fundraising guidelines for influential party members, PFP spokesman Liu Wen-hsiung (
He added that the guidelines, and the secrecy surrounding party donations, smacks of political extortion.
"We've already received complaints from several businesspeople that they've been under pressure from people in power to give money," Liu said yesterday.
In response, DPP Deputy Secretary-General Chung Chia-pin (
According to recent media reports, the DPP has set fundraising goals for most of its political heavyweights, in order to increase the party's campaign war chest for its year-end legislative candidates.
According to reports, the party has given Vice President Annette Lu (
Chung confirmed that those DPP fundraising targets are correct.
"The DPP should not allow any party members that are now government officials to endorse the campaigns of legislative candidates," Liu said. "After all, are there really any businesses that will refuse the request of a premier or a vice president for money? These businesses are donating money to buy `insurance' from the people with administrative power."
"`Green gold' is more terrible than black gold [corruptly-obtained money]," PFP legislator Pang Chien-kuo (
Liu and Pang made their comments during a press conference held yesterday.
Earlier, relevant government officials, such as Yu and Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
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