Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (
Ma confirmed yesterday that Chow would join him in attending the Valentine's Day party held by Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (
"We do have plans [to attend the event]. Mr Hu and his wife are old friends and we are more than happy to accept their invitation," Ma said yesterday in Tainan County.
PHOTO: CNA
Chow, a US-trained lawyer, usually avoids publicity and has only campaigned for her husband on the eve of the two elections he ran in for Taipei mayor.
Even after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) camp raised questions about Chow's investment activities and suggested she might have engaged in insider trading, she declined to comment on the matter in public, choosing instead to declare her innocence in a written statement.
Ma said he was not worried about being compared with Hu, who is not shy about showing his love for his wife in public. Ma said that he and his wife "would abide by the organizers' requests" during the Valentine's Day party.
Ma yesterday continued his "long stay" nationwide campaign in Tainan County, a traditional pan-green stronghold, earning a show of support from the director of Tainan Doctors' Association Wang Cheng-kuan (
"I struggled before deciding to give my support to Ma. I've always been a pan-green supporter and shifting my support to a pan-blue politician feels a little strange," Wang said yesterday.
Wang's move came after two major religious figures, Master Miao Tien (妙天) and Master Lin Yun (林雲), and former Miaoli County commissioner Fan Chen-tsung (范振宗), one of the DPP's chief campaigners in the Hakka community, recently came out in support of Ma.
Hsieh yesterday shrugged off the support Ma has received from pan-green supporters, while condemning his rival for not debating with him face-to-face.
"We should create a puppet character for Ma, and the puppet should be called `one-sentence Ma' because his only response to his opponents' challenges is to say `thanks for your comment,'" Hsieh said yesterday during a visit to Vincent Huang (
Hsieh on Saturday urged Ma to hold a debate on their respective policies on Saturday.
Asked for a response, Ma said: "Thanks for your comment."
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
SOVEREIGNTY: The rigs show that Beijing ‘rejects Taiwan’s jurisdiction’ by building in areas where Taipei demands permission to build or alter installations Chinese oil rigs have been sighted just 26 nautical miles (42km), from Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島), posing a threat to Taiwan’s sovereignty if left unchallenged, a brief published by the Jamestown Foundation on Tuesday said. Pratas Island, 444km from Kaohsiung, is northeast of the South China Sea and houses a Taiwanese garrison. The brief, titled “Rigging the Game: PRC Oil Structures Encroach on Taiwan’s Pratas Island” — referring to the People’s Republic of China — analyzed photographs and said that Beijing’s tools to pressure Taiwan now include oil rigs. “Oil rigs now constitute part of Beijing’s
The Taiwan Experience Education Program (TEEP) has funded short-term internships in Taiwan for more than 4,500 young people from more than 40 countries since 2015, with the goal of attracting and retaining international talent, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. Fifty-five colleges launched 514 projects this year, including in fields such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, medicine and biotechnology, green energy, and sustainability, it said. The program provides research and practical internships in Taiwan for two to six months, and offers cultural exchange and networking opportunities, the ministry said. For example, National Formosa University’s Embedded System and Autopilot Laboratory developed two solar-powered drones in
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