Former Presidential Office -secretary-general Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) and other pro--independence activists yesterday told a gathering over afternoon tea that they had raised more than NT$23 million (US$769,000) for political commentator Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒) over the past week alone, easily beating the initial objective of NT$5 million.
Chin, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August and is undergoing treatment, received a warm welcome when he appeared at the party and bowed to express his appreciation.
Chen said pan-green camp supporters had demonstrated their amazing mobilization power.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
He said that despite Chin’s status as a “Mainlander,” the fundraising event had successfully dashed “ethnic barriers.”
“I am deeply touched by this,” he said.
Chin ran into financial difficulties because of several lawsuits that were filed against him.
Chen, along with Taiwan -Association of University Professors president Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深), Northern Taiwan Society chairwoman Janice Chen (陳昭姿) and other pro-independence activists, held a joint press conference on Monday last week to announce the fundraiser.
The gathering in Taipei was held to express their gratitude. Chen Yi-shen said Chin is honest and outspoken and that his pen is like the sword.
Although some people have suggested the fundraising event should continue, Chen Yi-shen said they had to stop the event yesterday because the initial goal had already been met.
The fact that the fundraiser easily beat its objective, was a demonstration of Taiwan’s social strength, he said.
The total funds raised in the space of a week were NT$23,626,693, excluding donations in foreign currencies.
Lu Shih-hsiang (盧世祥), -executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Media Excellence, praised Chin — who was too weak to make a speech yesterday — as “Taiwan’s democracy fighter.”
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