Council for Hakka Affairs Chairman Lee Yung-teh (李永得) yesterday rebutted a newspaper report that said the council was responsible for spending too much money creating Hakka museums.
In an article titled "Hakka museums for mosquitoes" the Chinese-language China Times alleged yesterday that the combined operational costs for the nation's seven Hakka museums had already risen to NT$48 million (US$1.4 million), while combined revenue from ticket sales was only NT$2.9 million as of August.
"The figure does not include construction costs of NT$458 million," the report said.
The report did not clarify the starting date of the calculations.
Lee denied the report during a news conference yesterday.
The report also said that although the museums' operations depend on government subsidies and admission fees, four of the seven museums granted visitors free admission.
"First of all, creating such museums is a decision that falls under local governments' authority. We only helped them financially," Lee said.
Lee added that the council had spent NT$200 million to help create local Hakka museums.
"That's less than NT$30 million per year on average -- that's hardly enough for an ethnic group with 4.4 million people who account for 20 percent of the population," he said.
He added that the value of a museum should not be judged by the revenue it generates.
"If that's what you think, you probably don't understand what `culture' is," Lee said.
Two executives of drone supplier Jiin Ming Industry Co (錦明實業) have been detained and held incommunicado over the company's alleged use of prohibited China-made chips and camera lenses in drones supplied under recent military contracts, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors' Office said today. In a statement, prosecutors said they raided the offices of Jiin Ming — headquartered in Taoyuan — as well as those of its subsidiaries and its suppliers on Thursday last week. The raids followed a report that the company had breached its procurement contracts by putting the prohibited components into drones delivered to the military. During the raids, prosecutors summoned
The government would continue monitoring online rumors that a pneumonic plague outbreak has spread from Russia into China and could enhance existing quarantine measures, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said today. During a legislative meeting, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said rumors were circulating that the disease had spread across several Chinese provinces. He asked Cho whether the government was prepared to prevent the disease from spreading to Taiwan, given the frequent exchanges between Taiwan and China, and how concerned the government was about the alleged outbreak. The Ministry of Health and Welfare implemented border quarantine measures after briefing the Executive Yuan
South Korean boy band BigBang drew 120,000 fans to three concerts at Taipei Dome from Friday through yesterday, as the band thanked them for their support over their 20-year career. The Taipei Dome concerts were part of BigBang's "2026-2027 World Tour XX: Cosmos." Friday's concert was BigBang's first performance in Taiwan in 11 years. During the encore, group leader G-Dragon (GD) shouted "I love you" in Chinese and said he was especially happy to perform in Taiwan with bandmates Taeyang and Daesung. "Taipei, I'm very grateful to you all," GD said in Chinese, asking fans to wait for the band's return. Daesung thanked
DETAILED PLAN NEEDED: Relocating the airport would affect not just travelers, but also undermine national defense and emergency medical services, a legislator said Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday proposed relocating Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and turning the site into an artificial intelligence (AI) park, drawing opposition from politicians across party lines. Chiang’s plan would turn the 300 hectares into an AI park featuring tech clusters, residential communities and green space. The industrial cluster would host 200 domestic enterprises, generate NT$12 trillion (US$376.47 billion) in output, and accommodate 65,000 jobs and 35,000 residents, he said. Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said the Executive Yuan was surprised by the announcement, as the Taipei City Government did not discuss the proposal with the central government before making
RSS