President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday denied meeting privately with bookie Chen Ying-chu (陳盈助) in Chiayi in September, slamming Next Magazine for carrying the story and accusing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of spreading the allegations without evidence.
In an interview with ETTV, Ma defended his integrity and said he did not meet with Chen on Sept. 10 during a campaign visit to Chiayi.
“The magazine made a false accusation and the DPP jumped on the bandwagon to spread the rumors. This is a vicious culture,” he said.
Allegations of a meeting between Ma and Chen were made on Wednesday when an article in Next Magazine said that the president had held a private meeting with Chen in which he asked for a donation of NT$300 million (US$9.9 million).
The Presidential Office, Ma’s re-election campaign office and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have all denied the allegations. On Thursday, the KMT threatened to take legal action against the magazine.
Amid the allegations and a neck-and-neck race with DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Ma yesterday said he remained confident about his re-election bid even with People First Party Chairman James Soong’s (宋楚瑜) participation in the presidential election.
“I still believe that I will be re-elected even if Chairman Soong refuses to withdraw from the race … The differences between Chairperson Tsai and myself are pretty obvious, and I believe the people will choose me in the election,” he said.
The possibility of signing a peace agreement with China, Ma added, is a point of consideration because the issue will inevitably arise in the next decade, and as president, he should not avoid addressing the topic and must present a long-term plan to maintain peace and prosperity.
“I care about Taiwan’s peace and the lives of the people, their economic situation. I do not just care about my turnout in the election,” he added.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
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