The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday asked police to investigate an online rumor alleging that the general manager of the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park in New Taipei City is a financial supporter of the party.
The water park is the site of an explosion on Saturday that injured nearly 500 people and killed one person.
“While the entire nation prays and tries by all means to help victims of the explosion, there are politically calculating people who are taking advantage of the tragedy by making false accusations against the DPP,” Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎), a lawyer, said outside the Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division headquarters before going inside to file a police report.
“What they are doing is very inappropriate, so we are officially asking police to launch an investigation to see who is behind such political maneuvering that also harms victims and their families,” Huang added.
Huang was referring to a message that has been circulating via Line, Facebook and other social networking or messenger services.
According to the message, Formosa Fun Coast general manager Chen Hui-ying (陳慧穎) is an important sponsor of the DPP. It says that the financial relationship explains why the DPP “has not been pointing fingers” about the incident.
“I was thinking it felt odd,” the message read. “In the past, whenever something happened in a city or county governed by the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT], the DPP would go all out and make all kinds of accusations, but this time no one is doing so — [New Taipei City Mayor] Eric Chu [朱立倫] has had a narrow escape.”
This is not an isolated case, Huang said, adding that earlier this month, a rumor surfaced saying that the family of DPP Chairperson and presidential nominee Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) owns the Hai Pa Wang (海霸王) seafood restaurant chain and is expanding in China.
The Criminal Investigation Division accepted the report, asked for more details and promised to investigate.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a