The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday blasted Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) piggy bank campaign, calling it a greedy scheme to fill Tsai’s already full pockets.
Former KMT legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) told a news conference at the legislature that it was preposterous for Tsai to launch a donation scheme to ask for money from impoverished people, when Tsai and her family have allegedly reaped billions of New Taiwan dollars in profit from land speculation.
“Tsai has paid lip service to housing justice. Last year, when campaigning for then-DPP Taoyuan mayoral candidate Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), Tsai said the government should not serve as an accomplice for land speculators. Now the culprit could become [the leader of] our government next year,” Chiu said.
Chiu said it was the “biggest joke in the Republic of China’s [ROC] history” that someone born with a silver spoon in her mouth like Tsai would need to ask supporters to donate piggy banks filled with their hard-earned money.
Voters are urged to “buy and immediately refund” their piggy banks as a way of boycotting Tsai’s donation scheme, Chiu said, in an apparent reference to a controversial campaign targeting food products made by subsidiaries of the scandal-ridden Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團).
KMT caucus deputy whip Alicia Wang (王育敏) asked how Tsai could face her conscience after taking money probably saved on food by her supporters.
An estimated 150,000 piggy banks have been given out since August to DPP supporters.
Chiu and other KMT lawmakers have accused Tsai of engaging in speculation on rezoned lands in Taipei, including two plots measuring 477 ping and 644 ping (1,577m2 and 2,129m2) in Neihu District (內湖).
They claimed that both lots were purchased by Tsai’s family in 1980 and sold in 2008 and 2010 for a combined profit of at least NT$3.4 billion.
When a reporter from the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times sister newpaper) asked why the KMT still accepted political donations when it sits on huge illegal assets and why did it constitute land speculation when Tsai’s family owned the lots for as long as three decades before selling them, Chiu lashed out at the late Rong San Lin (林榮三) — the publisher of the two papers.
“Lin did not have the right to launch his own media outlets. He was a land speculator himself,” Chiu said.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
RSS