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John Chiang dismisses criticism over his campaign's Chinese calendar-pens

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidate John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) on Friday shrugged off criticism about pens distributed by his campaign headquarters containing 2008 calendars printed in simplified Chinese, with Oct. 1 -- the People's Republic of China's (PRC) National Day -- marked in red as a national holiday.

Chiang's campaign headquarters on Songjiang Road in Taipei distributed the flyers and pens, which included paper scroll versions of the calendar. The heading of the calendar included text citing Chiang's past experience as vice premier and minister of foreign affairs. The reverse side was printed in simplified Chinese, marking major Chinese holidays, such as the PRC's National Day, rather than the Republic of China's (ROC) National Day on Oct. 10.

The calendar also marked June 1 as Children's Day as celebrated in China, instead of the Women and Children's Day celebrated on April 4 in Taiwan. It also marked Youth Day on May 4, rather than Taiwan's equivalent on March 29.

Cabinet spokesperson Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said on Thursday that Chiang's grandfather, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), was anti-communist and would be displeased with the mistake.

He also said that John Chiang was campaigning to be an ROC legislator and should not use the calendar of the country's enemy for promotional purposes.

Shieh said John Chiang should apologize to the public to dispel suspicions of alliances with China to oppress Taiwan, as Chiang had frequently traveled to China in the past.

In response, Chiang said the pens were manufactured by Taiwanese businesses based in China.

Chiang said his campaign headquarters had already noticed the mistake but was not planning a recall as the manufacturer had apologized and the number of faulty products was limited.

He promised that in future promotional pens would be manufactured in Taiwan with Taiwanese calendars.

Describing the mistake as insignificant, Chiang said the Democratic Progressive Party was over-politicizing issues, which was as meaningless as the party's attempts to remove references to Chiang Kai-shek in the country.
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