Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (
Chow Mei-ching (
The couple joined Hu, KMT vice presidential candidate Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) and their wives to sing songs and mingled with participants during the party.
Chow, a US-trained lawyer, usually avoids publicity and has only campaigned for her husband on the eve of two elections he ran for Taipei mayor.
Earlier yesterday, Hu had dismissed accusations from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taichung city councilors that he had abused municipal resources to stage the party as a campaign event for Ma's presidential run.
"What's wrong with campaigning for candidates in private?" he said after attending an event in Taichung.
"There's nothing wrong with campaigning as long as I don't use municipal resources and don't do it during office hours," he said.
Hu said the event was sponsored by the KMT, rather than the Taichung City Government, and the city government had not contributed any money toward the staging of the party.
At the party, Ma thanked his wife for her ongoing support, and gave his blessing to all those attending the party.
Ma said he and his wife had accepted Hu's invitation to yesterday's party because they were old friends.
He declined to say whether Chow would attend any future campaign events.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
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,
REWRITING HISTORY: China has been advocating a ‘correct’ interpretation of the victory over Japan that brings the CCP’s contributions to the forefront, an expert said An elderly Chinese war veteran’s shin still bears the mark of a bullet wound he sustained when fighting the Japanese as a teenager, a year before the end of World War II. Eighty years on, Li Jinshui’s scar remains as testimony to the bravery of Chinese troops in a conflict that killed millions of their people. However, the story behind China’s overthrow of the brutal Japanese occupation is deeply contested. Historians broadly agree that credit for victory lies primarily with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led Republic of China (ROC) Army. Its leader, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a