The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus criticized Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday for a proposal he made as a legislator for the central bank to issue coins to mark the 100th anniversary of late president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) birth next year.
“There was obviously a political motive behind the proposal,” DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) told a press conference held by the caucus. “This is like restoration [of the Chiang authoritarian era].”
DPP caucus whip Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) said Wu initiated the proposal because he “is good at watching what [his superiors] say and do and knows perfectly well how to survive in [Taiwanese] politics and that his master Ma [Ying-jeou (馬英九)] treats Chiang as his own father.”
Wu proposed in April that the bank should issue NT$10 coins featuring Chiang by next year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Chiang’s birth. His proposal was backed by 61 KMT lawmakers.
Chiang was born on April 27, 1910, and passed away on Jan. 13, 1988.
The NT$10 coins currently bear a portrait of Chiang Ching-kuo’s father, former dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
Chai said he might suggest the bank withdraw coins with Chiang Kai-shek’s likeness.
KMT legislators, however, had mixed reactions yesterday about the idea of a commemorative coin.
KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) said that it would be acceptable to issue the coins as long as the public had formed a consensus first.
But KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said it would be meaningless to manipulate the nation’s currency for political purposes.
“We can also put Yushan or Alishan on the coins,” she said.
“I do not support the worshiping of specific political symbols,” KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching