Sitting on the floor at an international airport while charging his phone using a wall outlet was “practical,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, amid criticism that he was presenting a poor image of Taiwan’s capital.
Ko was photographed sitting on a carpeted floor at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. The photo was posted on Ko’s Facebook page on Wednesday last week, the final day of his five-day trip to Israel, along with a few other photos from his visit.
While the post garnered more than 29,000 likes, the photo of him wearing a suit and sitting cross-legged on the floor was also criticized.
Photo taken from Facebook
The Taipei branch of Taiwan Radical Wings said Ko was “a humiliating government head” for sitting on the floor, blocking a walking area with his bag and using an outlet rather than a charging station.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Wang Chih-ping’s (汪志冰) on Friday said that Ko’s behavior could create a negative impression of Taipei.
Wang said Ko was pretentious, pretending to be casual and close with regular Taiwanese.
His staff should have assisted him to charge the phone, she said.
Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-cheng (王世堅) also called Ko pretentious, adding that there must be charging stations at the airport, so Ko was pretending to be easygoing, but as a mayor, he should practice proper international etiquette.
Ko yesterday said he is a practical person and although his staff might have had portable power banks, he would have felt bad if he had drained their devices and he did not want to bother them.
He charged it at an outlet at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport standing up, but sat down in Israel because he thought no one would recognize him there, Ko said.
“The Taiwanese public is good at being fake and phony,” he said, adding that he hates how people expect a mayor to wear a suit and necktie, talk in a certain way and have staff members do everything.
Ko said he has seen many people sit on the floor while charging devices at Taoyuan airport, so those who say he should not have used a wall outlet are just nitpicking.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan’s armed forces have established response protocols for a wide range of sudden contingencies, including the “Wan Chun Plan” to protect the head of state, the Ministry of Defense (MND) said today. After US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, concerns have been raised as to whether China would launch a similar “decapitation strike” on Taiwan. The armed forces regularly coordinate with relevant agencies and practice drills to ensure preparedness for a wide range of scenarios, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) told reporters before a
RSS