President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should rein in Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members who are spreading racist and gender-biased propaganda in a bid to snatch votes for the year-end local elections and support for a controversial trade pact with China, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
Acting DPP Spokesman Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said at a press conference that the KMT’s Chiayi County branch has been running a “questionable, negative advertisement” insinuating that the DPP nominee in the county commissioner’s race, Chang Hwa-kuan (張花冠), was involved in adulterous relations with the current commissioner, Chen Ming-wen (陳明文).
The ad, which appeared in major Chinese-language newspapers on Thursday, compared the DPP’s decision to nominate Chang, a legislator, to a popular soap opera plot line by saying the party resorted to the “second wife” strategy to secure the seat.
Chang, 55, is the widow of late KMT legislator and prominent businessman Tseng Chen-nung (曾振農). At the announcement of Chang’s nomination, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) praised her for making the transition from the wife of a businessman to a politician.
Both Chen and Chang said yesterday they were prepared to sue their pan-blue rivals for defamation.
“It is regrettable that the KMT has stooped so low this early in the race. But this will not stand in my way of winning the seat,” Chang said.
Calling the KMT’s ad part of a smear campaign, Chao yesterday urged Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, to stop his party members using “low-class” and discriminatory tactics in the battle for the commissionership.
Chao said that during Ma’s presidential campaign, his supporters had also published several profanely worded ads in publications around the country.
During the presidential campaign of 2007, Ma’s supporters in Kaohsiung draped a giant banner on the side of a building bearing a phrase that used Ma’s last name in an allusion to a swear word. A pan-blue underground radio station at that time also started its show with a jingle making use of what sounded like an obscene phrase.
“Now, as the president, he has allowed the Ministry of Economic Affairs to distribute racist propaganda to boost support for the economic cooperation framework agreement [ECFA] that it wants to sign with Beijing. It is difficult not to suspect that these are all mere reflections of Ma’s real sentiments,” he said.
Chao was referring to a comic strip that the ministry had created to promote the ECFA. The cartoon features two stereotypical characters, Yi-ge (一哥), an ethnic Taiwanese vocational school graduate who opposes the ECFA, and Fa-sao (發嫂), a sharp-minded Hakka career woman who supports the deal.
The DPP last month expressed outrage at the cartoon and demanded that the ministry withdraw it.
Although the ministry has insisted there was nothing wrong with the cartoon and refused to remove it from its Web site, the ministry yesterday released a statement that said it had decided to pull the cartoon.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
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