Outgoing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday denied that he displayed his ballot before placing it in the ballot box, showing that he voted for Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) in the KMT chairmanship election.
After Lien's ballot was photographed and the image aired by local TV stations that reported that Lien had voted for Wang, Lien made the denial to the media before leaving for Japan from CKS International Airport. "How could it be possible?" Lien asked in reply to reporters' questions.
Wang and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
In other news, some irregularities concerning ballots were reported in yesterday's election. The district of most concern to both the Ma and Wang camps was Yunlin County, where controversy erupted last week when it was discovered that administrative lapses by the KMT's Yunlin office had left the voting privileges of over 6,000 party members in the region in question.
Many KMT members tore up their ballots in anger, because they were not allowed to vote as they were not able to prove their KMT membership. In addition, some elderly voters who had to stand in long queues in the scorching sun fainted and were taken to hospital in ambulances.
In Changhua County, a TV reporter was assaulted in a voting station. His camera was almost smashed and he sustained scratches in the scuffle.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods