Following the government's recent efforts to remove statues of late dictator Chiang Kai-shek (
Anyone visiting the grand hall on the second floor of the Presidential Office building will notice that the bronze statue of Sun that used to grace a pedestal at the top of the stairs has been replaced with a potted Taiwan cypress tree.
Presidential Office spokesman David Lee (
PHOTO: CNA
The Presidential Office has also changed the name of a monthly meeting, previously dubbed the "Founding Father Memorial Monthly Meeting," to "Presidential Monthly Meeting."
Lee said the public should not read too much into the changes. He added that a painting of Sun still hangs in the auditorium where monthly meetings take place and that participants would continue to bow to it.
Last March, the Presidential Office changed a sign that hung above its entrance hall from "Chieh-shou Hall" to "Presidential Office."
The sign, which had been in place since 1948, was criticized as a relic of authoritarianism.
"Chieh-shou Hall" can be translated as "Long live Chiang Kai-shek Hall."
The Japanese-built Presidential Office building was dubbed Chieh-shou Hall to celebrate the 60th birthday of Chiang, who was born on Oct. 31, 1887.
When approached for comment yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Shih-cheng (
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
RSS