President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday thanked his followers on his Google+ page for both encouragement and criticism and said all opinions would be welcomed, as the search engine giant listed him as one of the top 50 users with the most followers.
Ma was ranked 45 among the 50 Google+ users with the most followers, with 24,108 people registered to follow his page, according to a study of Google+ social statistics that tracked 38,574 Google+ profiles.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was ranked No. 1 among the top 50 most followed users on Google’s new social networking platform with 352,100 followers, followed by Google founder and CEO Larry Page.
Ma attracted more than 24,000 followers since he joined the platform on Tuesday, with many followers from China.
“I feel everyone’s passions on my page, and I am thankful for both criticism and encouragement because they are part of the driving force that pushes me forward … I also noticed many of my Google+ page followers are from China, and I welcome all advice no matter where it comes from,” he said on his Google+ page.
Social networking media including Facebook, Plurk and Google+ are becoming major campaign tools for the president in his re-election bid. His Facebook page, which was launched about six months ago, had attracted more than 800,000 fans as of yesterday.
Ma also thanked Facebook fans for their support, and said reading messages on his Facebook page before sleep had become a daily routine.
“Although I do not have time to read all messages, I feel everyone’s affections and expectations for Taiwan,” he said on his Facebook page yesterday.
Campaign office spokesperson Lee Chia-fei (李佳霏) said social--networking media would continue to be a major campaign tool for Ma to communicate with young people, and that the office would soon invite Internet users to meet with the president and discuss public issues face to face.
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
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