The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) plans to spend NT$1 billion (US$3.33 million) in Greater Taichung to illegally influence the election, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Greater Taichung mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung’s (林佳龍) campaign director Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said yesterday.
Su said that rumors about the KMT’s scheme to help Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) retain his position are rife, although he added that there is no evidence proving their veracity.
The KMT’s Taichung Office responded by taking legal action over what it said was slander.
Su made the remarks when he and Lin attended a press conference held by Taiwan Solidarity Union Greater Taichung Councilor Liu Kuo-lung (劉國隆), who said he was dropping out of the race.
Liu’s move benefits the pan-green camp, as it pits two DPP candidates against two KMT candidates — rather than three pan-green candidates against two pan-blue candidates — for three seats in the city’s northern district.
Su said after the conference that he had heard about the KMT’s alleged plan “through the grapevine” and would have turned to judicial means if he had evidence.
“[We do not have concrete proof and] that’s why we’re simply warning the KMT not to do whatever the rumor says it is doing,” Su said. “We are asking the KMT not to underestimate people’s sense of justice, and the DPP would exert every effort to expose any bribery.”
Hu called Su’s allegation “a joke” and “an underestimation of people’s wisdom.”
“Who of the two Greater Taichung mayoral candidates is richer? Who has been lavishing money?” Hu asked, suggesting that Lin, the son-in-law of former Chimei Innolux chairman Frank Liao (廖錦祥), could afford to pay bribes.
KMT Greater Taichung Office director Jiang Shih-liang (江士良) filed a suit alleging defamation and a violation of the Civil Servants Election And Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), which stipulates that “anyone who disseminates rumors or spreads false accusations... for the purpose of getting a candidate elected or not elected... shall be condemned to a fixed term of imprisonment.”
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods