On behalf of her husband, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) yesterday urged judicial authorities to grant Chen a release from prison for medical treatment.
Wu, who is subject to house arrest during her 17-and-a-half-year prison sentence because of bad health, said she did not rule out organizing a protest against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) if the release were not granted.
Wu, who lives in Greater Kaohsiung, visited Chen, who is also serving a 17-and-a-half-year prison sentence for corruption, at Taipei Prison yesterday. She said Chen’s deteriorating health was worrisome.
Wu said Chen appeared to have been suffering from exhaustion and liver problems since he was granted a release to go to the funeral of Wu’s mother in Tainan in January.
Noting the poor health of his mother and aging grandmother, who is 85 years old, the former president’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), said he would file a request to have Chen Shui-bian relocated to a prison in southern Taiwan so that it would be more convenient for his family to visit.
In related news yesterday, the former president wrote in his column published in a weekly magazine that former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) needed to take a hard look at her election loss.
The Jan. 14 presidential election was “winnable” for Tsai as early as eight months before the election and as late as two months before polling day, he said, adding that “everything the DPP had expected to happen, did not happen,” including its vote-share simulation, mobilization and the impact of its slogan: “Hakka girl for president.”
The DPP has been trying to appeal to swing voters, but “history has shown that mobilizing the DPP’s core support is the winning formula,” he said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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