The war of words between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) and the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) continued as the two returned to Taipei yesterday morning from trips to the US.
King and Su have been trading barbs since last week.
Both were in the US to solicit support from Taiwanese expatriates for the year-end special municipality elections.
The Chinese-language China Times yesterday reported that in New York Su berated President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for wasting taxpayers’ money on consumer vouchers. Su also criticized Ma and his administration for bragging about US-Taiwan relations, blaming the government for a series of failures, including failure to sign a free-trade agreement with the US, receive US visa waivers or purchase F-16C/D fighters from the US.
King dismissed Su’s accusation that the government hasn’t put enough effort into developing US-Taiwan relations.
“Mr Su should expand his knowledge on international relations. He would have a different opinion on [US-Taiwan relations] if he had a deeper understanding of the issue,” King said.
On Saturday, while in Los Angeles, King challenged Su to promise to serve out the four-year term if elected Taipei mayor, to which Su responded that he would serve a full four-year term if he wins and would not consider a presidential run in 2012.
King also claimed that Su and DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is running for Sinbei mayor, do not get along, saying that residents of Taipei and Sinbei cities would suffer if the two were to be elected in the Nov. 27 elections.
King yesterday denied attacking Su, saying that his comments were made in a public and open way.
“All candidates should be reviewed in democratic elections, and what I said in the US were open comments or questions raised in a proper manner, rather than spreading rumors or making any accusations privately,” he said.
At a separate setting yesterday, Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) criticized Su for making the local race a national one by focusing his attack on Ma.
Lo described Su as “Mr Unclear,” saying he was unclear about whether he was running for mayor or president, unclear about his policy plan and unclear about his position on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
Lo said that while Su claimed he would not stand in the 2012 presidential election, he was running his campaign for Taipei mayor as if he were running for president.
“He may want to run for president so much that he does not have his mind on city affairs and his heart is far from his lips,” Lo said.
Su responded to KMT criticism with a post on his blog.
“From a certain point of view, the opponent’s attack is one of the best way to help us excel,” Su wrote.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods