The Taipei City Government yesterday dismissed reports that Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is planning to fire Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Ni Chung-hwa (倪重華), who has been involved in a number of controversies.
According to the latest issue of the Chinese-language Next Magazine, Ko might fire Ni, who has been accused of using his influence to secure accommodations for foreign directors, playwrights and their assistants who attended this year’s Golden Horse Awards at the Mandarin Oriental luxury hotel.
However, several film crew members reportedly made changes to their schedules and did not check in to the hotel as scheduled, which incurred losses for the Taipei City Government under an agreement it reached with the hotel.
Photo: CNA
Taipei City Government deputy spokesman David Huang (黃大維) rebutted the report, saying Ko had not made any plans to change his staff.
Huang also dismissed reports that Ni, who was recruited by Ko after his election, is “at odds” with the mayor’s aides, who used to be his campaign office staffers and were later granted posts at the city government.
Meanwhile, the Taipei Department of Urban Development said the city government has an agreement with the hotel, rewarding it with a total floor space of 1,346.8 ping (4,444m2) in exchange for a quota to use its suites, conference rooms, exhibition halls and lounge to accommodate the needs of the city’s exhibition industry.
Separately, Ni told reporters that he made arrangements for the film crews’ accommodations in compliance with rules set forth by the Taipei Department of Finance.
Asked whether he felt “wronged,” Ni said: “No. The mayor seeks reform, and all reforms come at a cost.”
On criticism by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chen Li-hui (陳孋輝) that he discusses city government policies as if he were “conducting business,” Ni said: “The councilor has made many demands. My way of communication was to better understand her needs so that we can devise policies that better reflect public opinion.”
Ni has been entangled in controversy after consultants for the Taipei Film Festival unanimously resigned last month after event chairwoman Lee Lieh (李烈) accused the commissioner of interfering with her freedom to work and of commercializing the festival.
Ni again became the source of controversy after it came to light that Ko had made him sign a “warrior’s oath” that says Ni should “assume political responsibility” if he fails to deliver a budget proposal related to the relocation of the historic Mitsui Warehouse (三井倉庫) in time for a negotiation between the city government and the Taipei City Council before the end of the current session.
According to minutes of the meeting last week to discuss the warehouse’s relocation, Ko said that Education Committee councilors had denied the Department of Cultural Affairs the budget needed to relocate the warehouse due to Ni’s “indifference” while advocating for the budget.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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