Following in the steps of the Cabinet and its legislative caucus, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will also strengthen its mechanism of spokespersonship by adding two Taipei City councilors to join in a "spokesperson's group," in an effort to target the mistakes that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Because of the contrast between the opposition parties' vigorous criticism and the government's weak and belated counterattacks, DPP Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsan (
"Some false accusations that the pan-blue camp has made, and stories or campaign ads without fact-checking might harm our candidates, which makes us worry a lot," Cheng said. "Especially when the pan-blue camp has just started its negative campaign strategy, trying to blacken the government's image with nonsensical remarks."
Several high-ranking DPP officials have conveyed concerns about this phenomenon and have complained about the slow reaction of the Executive Yuan to the pan-blue camp's charges, saying it leaves a bad impression with voters about the government's capabilities.
Thus, the DPP decided to beef up its spokesperson mechanism. In addition to the regular spokesmen, DPP Secretary-General Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋), Deputy Secretary-General Yen Wan-ching (顏萬進) and Cheng -- who usually reacts to national issues or the pan-blue camp's criticisms -- DPP Taipei City councilors Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) and Lan Shih-tsung (藍世聰) will join the spokesperson's group to target municipal omissions or scandals exposed in Ma's administration.
"Ma has neglected his mayoral duties for a long time, and we think citizens and other people can't neglect this fact," Lan said. "We have the responsibility to let them know."
Hsu is also the director of the party's Department of Woman's Development and Lan is the director of the DPP's Department of Social Development.
Additionally, in order to prevent the government's major construction projects and reforms from being distorted and incorrectly relayed to the public, Cheng said the DPP's central standing committee will also enhance the contacts that exist with the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan and the DPP, and each department will be required to respond immediately to controversies.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching