Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman John Kuan (
DPP legislators Wang Sing-nan (
Guan lashed out at Wang and Lee for making false statements and later filed a defamation lawsuit against the two.
PHOTO: BOBBY YIP, REUTERS
"I will accept my punishment and commit seppuku at the party's headquarters if they can present evidence that I have bribed others," Guan told a press conference at KMT headquarters. "The two legislators should also end their lives if they cannot prove their allegations."
Seppuku refers to the Japanese ritual of committing suicide by disembowelment.
Meanwhile, Ma yesterday warned his supporters not to be too optimistic about his election bid, and urged them to help boost the turnout ratio to 75 percent by showing up and voting at Saturday's election.
"We need to have a sense of crisis as the election approaches. The situation is tense, and I will lose the election if you fail to vote," Ma said while soliciting support at the Cheng Kung public housing complex in Taipei.
Media reports of four KMT legislators barging into the Taipei campaign headquarters of DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) on Wednesday have dealt a blow to the Ma campaign. The incident turned into a violent clash between the legislators and Hsieh's supporters, and Ma is concerned it may have a negative impact on his election bid.
Returning to Taipei from his nationwide campaign tour, Ma, a former Taipei mayor, thanked local residents for their long-term support, while lashing out at the DPP administration for its poor performance over the past eight years.
"Mr. Hsieh and his running mate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) are both responsible for the administration's poor performance. Expecting them to change Taiwan for the better would be a mistake," he said.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
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