The Executive Yuan said yesterday it would ask its agencies to be more sensitive after a comic strip designed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to promote a cross-strait economic pact was criticized as discriminatory.
Government Information Office Minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said government agencies should be careful in publications not to offend anyone.
The remarks came after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Wednesday criticized the MOEA cartoon, which was designed to promote an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
The DPP said the comic strip was “extremely offensive and derogatory” because it described those who oppose the ECFA as stupid and uninformed about current events.
Su yesterday urged the public not to be offended.
“[Different government agencies] have different needs and considerations when promoting policies in different ways and for different purposes,” he said.
Asked whether the Executive Yuan would instruct the MOEA to scrap the comic strip, Su said it respected the authority of the ministry.
At a separate setting yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chu Fong-chi (朱鳳芝) described the comic strip as “ridiculous.”
“[The comic strip] should help the ministry promote this policy, but instead will create ethnic division,” she said.
The male character in the comic strip, “Yi-ge” (一哥), is a middle-aged, Hoklo-speaker from Tainan.
He is described as knowing little about the ECFA or economic matters and works as a salesman in a traditional industry.
He has a vocational school education, speaks “Taiwanese Mandarin” and is usually content to follow others. But when it comes to protecting himself, he “goes all out.” The profile says he is the kind of person who talks tough but never takes action.
In contrast, the female character, Fa-sao (發嫂) is an active, self-motivated and highly capable, married woman who is fluent in English, Mandarin, Hoklo and Japanese.
Her profile says she has a thirst for knowledge and knows what the ECFA is about.
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS