The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday penalized Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) over his behavior at the funeral of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mother by suspending his right to participate in caucus activities for six months.
Chen will not be able to take part in any caucus activities, including being elected as a caucus official or as a convener for any legislative committee.
It is the strongest penalty the caucus has ever handed out, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) told a press conference.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) said Chen would be allowed to attend caucus meetings, but his right to vote would be suspended for six months.
The Yilan County lawmaker showed up uninvited to Chin Hou-hsiu’s (秦厚修) funeral on Monday morning and expressed displeasure at what he said was an inadequate reception at the funeral home.
His comments were caught on videotape and were labeled by most media outlets as an intentional “disturbance.”
Chen has apologized several times this week for his actions, but this has not mollified his critics. He has said he simply wanted to pay tribute to Chin and “made a suggestion” to Ma’s aides that they should have made better arrangements for people who wished to mourn Chin. He said the media had blown the incident out of proportion.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have petitioned for Chen to be referred to the Legislative Yuan’s Discipline Committee.
Chen said he accepted the caucus’ penalty. He also said that he had already taken the initiative to put an end to the incident by resigning as convener of the Foreign and National Defense Committee.
He said yesterday that he accept the referral to the Discipline Committee, which could bar Chen from exercising some of his rights as a legislator.
Several DPP politicians said that while they found Chen’s behavior unacceptable, they though the KMT’s reaction was aimed more at shifting attention away from a campaign launched by a group of activists to recall several KMT legislators, including Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) and Alex Tsai (蔡正元), for “being Ma’s pets” and ignoring the public’s voice in policy areas.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan