Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien’s (連勝文) camp yesterday released a video of his wife, Patty Tsai (蔡依珊), recalling the time Lien was shot while stumping for KMT New Taipei City Councilor Chen Hung-yuan (陳鴻源) four years ago.
Lin Cheng-wei (林正偉) shot Lien at close range, with the bullet entering the left side of Lien’s face and exiting near his right temple.
Afterward, Lin said he had mistaken Lien for Chen. Lin was sentenced to life imprisonment in January last year.
In the video, Tsai says that despite his brush with death, Lien had not been simmering with resentment after the incident, nor had he become angry and misanthropic.
“That is why I like him, because he has been a sunshine boy,” she says.
The video then shows Tsai saying she believes God had a reason for helping Lien survive the shooting and appealing to Taipei voters to give him a chance.
“He always leaves a good impression on anyone who talks to him because he is very sincere,” she says.
Earlier in the day, when asked about the shooting, Lien said he would be lying if he said he was not haunted by the incident, adding that it had been life-changing.
“I began to think about what I could do to give back to society. Today [the anniversary of the shooting] really means a lot to me,” he said.
In other developments, Lien said he plans to donate the subsidy he will receive from the government for his votes in Saturday’s election to charity.
Lien made the remark when asked to confirm a report in the Chinese-language Next Magazine that he would announce a donation from his personal assets ahead of Saturday’s election to boost his chances.
“It [the magazine] got it wrong. We are planning to donate the NT$30 per vote subsidy,” Lien said as he canvassed for support at the Zhengyi Public Housing Complex (正義國宅) in the city’s Daan District (大安) last night.
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
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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