Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Kuo-ching (
Lin told a press conference that it was evident from Prosecutor Chang Hsi-huai's (張熙懷) actions that he placed China before Taiwan.
Lin also accused Chang of abusing his privilege as chief prosecutor of the Taipei Prosecutors' Office by reserving a special seat for visiting Chinese academic Wu Dan-hong (
The Academia Sinica invited Wu to visit Taiwan between June and September.
Lin showed the press copies of an article written by Wu and published in China's Chinese-language Legal Times on July 30, in which Wu mentioned how Chang had given him a tour of the Taipei District Court.
"How can a person from a country hostile to Taiwan be given the run of a Taiwanese court? This endangered national security," Lin said.
However, according to court regulations -- ?copies of which Lin provided to the press -- there is nothing prohibiting Chinese residents from attending court hearings in Taiwan.
Lin also questioned the title of a speech delivered by Chang at Beijing University on Oct. 13: "The Development and Prospects of Taiwan's Criminal Prosecution -- Using the First Son-In-Law's Case as a Starting Point." Lin said the title of the speech suggested that Chang had long regarded the first family as criminals.
Chang later yesterday said he "had a rainbow in his heart," by which he meant that he had no particular political affiliation.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its