Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) today is to begin a leave of absence to focus on his re-election campaign.
Asked yesterday morning about his feelings on his last working day as mayor, Ko said he does not feel anything in particular, as he just discussed urban renovation issues in a daily meeting and still had to review many documents.
Ko also said that his campaign director Hsiao Yeh (小野) is a “nice person,” after Hsiao Yeh appeared in a promotional video for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), stirring speculation over Ko’s political stance.
Photo: CNA
Ko had earlier said that he respects Hsiao Yeh’s decision to support Chen, as election and political party preferences are not the only concerns in personal relationships.
He added yesterday that Hsiao Yeh is a nice person with a good reputation, who has hardly received any negative comments from the cultural industries.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) on Tuesday wrote on Facebook that film director Wu Nien-jen (吳念真) and Hsiao Yeh are the two “cultural door-gods for the pan-green camp” and said that Ko asked Hsiao Yeh to be his campaign director in a bid to win DPP supporters’ votes.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Ting in the past few days has repeatedly claimed that the DPP is planning to give up on its Taipei mayoral candidate, Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智), to pour extra effort into Chen’s campaign.
Many supporters of KMT Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) left comments on Ko’s Facebook page, calling him a fake independent.
Ko said he asked Hsiao Yeh to be his campaign director because Hsiao Yeh was his teacher during his first year in college, and because his rich experience in the arts could improve weaker aspects of his team.
Hsiao Yeh said that Ko did not ask him to become his campaign director because he is skilled at electoral manipulation, but because Ko has read his books and watched his movies, and wanted him to help formulate cultural policies.
He said he has so far not criticized any candidate, but is disappointed that Ting unfairly criticized his friend Wu.
He said he has begun to doubt whether Ting really understands the nation’s cultural development, adding that his conspiracies regarding the DPP’s strategy are deeply hurting everyone involved.
Hsiao Yeh said that he left the KMT-affiliated Central Motion Picture Corp at the age of 37 and began writing books about culture, ecology and education without support from any political party.
Bursting into tears three times, Hsiao Yeh spoke about Wu’s contributions to Taiwanese culture, including a project they started with film director Ko I-chen (柯一正) to hold art performances for children in all 319 townships across the nation without any government or political party funding.
“I am not dependent on political parties, and my friend Wu Nien-jen has contributed much to Taiwan. I do not want to start a verbal battle, but he [Ting] called us door gods who control the industry,” he said, adding that he is sad to see such politically motivated smearing.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without