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.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
RSS