Late president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) mausoleum in Touliao (頭寮), Taoyuan County, yesterday was adorned with flowers to mark the 24th anniversary of his death.
The flowers were sent by various political figures, including former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), Chiang’s son, Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴), New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明), People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Once a year Ma pays a visit to Chiang Ching-kuo’s mausoleum. Ma served as his English secretary in the 1980s.
Photo: AFP
Yesterday Ma appeared solemn and red-eyed as he led officials from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to pay tribute to the former president.
Upon leaving the mausoleum to canvass for support on the final day of his re-election campaign, Ma was accidentally hit by a screen door, creating a tense moment for his security detail.
Later, at a separate setting, upon hearing that Ma’s eyes had glistened during his tribute to Chiang Ching-kuo, Soong said that “Ma should cry in shame for not taking good care of Taiwan’s economy and its people.”
“When Chiang [Ching-kuo] passed away, Taiwan was the lead nation among the ‘Four Asian dragons,’ and now Taiwan is the last of the ‘Four Asian dragons,’” said Soong, who also started his political career as an English secretary for Chiang Ching-kuo.
“Ma indeed should be ashamed, and should cry and search his heart for whether he has led the general public to a better life,” Soong said.
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,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400