An announcement by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) that it would set up a Facebook account to promote government policies has come under fire from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which said the timing was suspicious.
The project, which comes with a NT$6 million (US$205,332) price tag, had been put out to a public bid and a company had been found to take charge of the work.
The Web site will be launched after the contract is finalized, the council said.
Council officials said that although Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) has a personal Facebook page, the Web site maintenance needed its own personnel, adding that though some employees at the council were helping out, senior officials were worried that this could blur the line between private and work-related matters.
The council said Lai’s Facebook page was limited in terms of connection and participation by netizens, and that once the official Facebook site goes online, it would link Lai’s Facebook with the official one.
This would also provide legitimate reasons to allocate resources and manpower to the maintenance of Lai’s site and would help Lai’s popularity on Facebook, the council said.
However, with the council’s Facebook operational timeframe stretching across the presidential election in January, questions have been raised as to whether it would be used to help promote President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign.
Council officials deny such a connection, saying the timeframe was coincidental because of a delay in the bidding, adding that there were no political considerations.
The DPP caucus, however, is not convinced.
The caucus said the council’s advertising budget stood at NT$31 million in 2009, but grew to NT$120 million last year and NT$170 million this year.
Aside from placing advertisements across a variety of platforms, the council was also spending serious money subsidizing legislative assistants to attend classes in the country as well as on official visits to Hong Kong, the caucus said.
The caucus accused the council of not maintaining administrative neutrality, citing incidents of council officials going to pan-blue legislators’ offices and holding meetings with the public.
It also pointed to the posting by Lai on her Facebook page of 18 questions prior to DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) announcement of the “cross-strait” section of her 10-year party guidelines on Aug. 23.
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it