Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (
"He was obviously trying to look for trouble when he was interviewing the premier," Cho said. "On the whole, I think his performance during the interview was unprofessional."
Cho made his complaint yesterday morning, after he was approached by reporters and asked for comments on the Wednesday night interview.
Hsieh was invited to participate on the 2100 Public Talk show on TVBS Wednesday night, to discuss the Thai worker riot issue. During the show, the premier and Lee had a heated exchange.
Regarding the premier's aggressive attitude during the interview, Cho defended Hsieh and said that the premier was merely "cooperating with the host." Cho took a question from Lee as an example. He said that while Lee was questioning Hsieh, a former Kaohsiung mayor, about allegations of favoritism when the government chose the contractor for the MRT project, Lee omitted the fact that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Chung-yu (王鍾渝) was at the time president of the China Steel Corp (CSC).
The CSC won the bid to become the contractor for Kaohsiung's MRT system during Hsieh's eight-year term as the mayor.
"Lee has been criticizing the issue for the past couple of days. According to his attitude and his questions for the premier, it was obvious that Lee was trying to attack the premier on purpose," Cho said.
In addition to alleged attacks during the conversation, the spokesman also complained that Lee interrupted Hsieh several times during the interview.
"I think what he did there was very arrogant and rude. When you are interviewing somebody, you should be very polite and let the person finish whatever he is trying to say, right?" Cho added.
Meanwhile, KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen (
Cheng made the remarks in response to Hsieh, who in the interview Wednesday night, said the decision to build Kaohisung's mass rapid transit system under the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model was made when the KM was in power both in the city and in the central government.
Cheng claimed that all contracts for the construction project were awarded and executed during Hsieh's time in office in Kaohsiung, and it is Hsieh who must explain matters to the people regarding the current controversies surrounding the MRT's construction.
She said that Wu had only decided on the "direction" of building the MRT system under the "build, operate and transfer" formula -- a decision which she said the Cabinet at the time did not agree with.
If Hsieh was against the BOT project, he could have changed it instead of carrying through with it, the KMT spokesman said.
Cheng also asked why the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government insisted on removing CSC chairman Wang after the party came to power in 2000, and then hurried to award all the construction contracts for the project. She added that there should be a complete investigation into the awarding of the contracts.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS