Beijing should be cautious about its timing to pressure Taiwan, as pressuring the nation at international conferences on healthcare and sanitation might trigger a backlash similar to that caused by Taiwanese K-pop singer Chou Tzu-yu’s (周子瑜) forced apology, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
Ko made the comment when asked by reporters about Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ding-yu’s (王定宇) idea that Taiwan’s delegation to the World Health Assembly should bring with Zika and dengue-fever-carrying mosquitoes to the Geneva gathering to protest against Beijing subordinating Taiwan’s sovereignty.
“Disease prevention efforts should be thorough around the world. I believe that the Chinese Communist Party will apply all kinds of pressure on Taiwan, but it had better avoid some issues, particularly issues about healthcare and sanitation. Otherwise, the backlash triggered by the Chou Tzu-yu incident will recur. Beijing needs to be careful,” Ko said.
Chou made a tearful apology in January for briefly holding up a Republic of China flag during an appearance with other members of TWICE on a South Korean variety show, which had drawn a wave of protests from Chinese netizens.
Chou said in the video that she was “proud to be Chinese.”
However, her apology sparked a public outcry in Taiwan and has been cited as one of the factors to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential and legislative election rout just two days later.
Ko also told reporters that the Farglory Group’s claim that the city government might have deliberately withheld information on a resolution made by the Taipei Construction Review Committee in March regarding the Taipei Dome project out of concern that it would negatively affect the city’s negotiations with company.
The committee found that Farglory carried out the construction according to the project’s construction drawings.
Ko said that the committee’s resolution simply meant that Farglory Construction Co carried out the construction according to the drawing handed to it by Farglory Dome Co, but it likely used a different drawing when the project passed a review by the city’s Urban Planning Review Committee in 2011.
Farglory Group’s claim was a red herring, the mayor said.
“They have such good public relations skills. I really admire their ability to manipulate the media. They would be great if they were fighting an election campaign,” he said.
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