Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday rejected speculation that his meetings with former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) were part of a plan to run for president.
Ko visited Lee at his house in Taipei’s Cuishan Villa (翠山莊) community on Feb. 12 and met with Chen at his Kaohsiung home on Friday, during a visit to Kaohsiung and Pingtung.
The meeting with Lee was reported by a Chinese-language media outlet, which also claimed that an anonymous source said that Ko’s main purpose was to show concern for Lee’s recovery from a fall in November last year, and that Lee seemed happy to see Ko and also praised him for doing a good job.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
The meeting with Chen Shui-bian was confirmed by the former president on Facebook in a posting titled “New Hero Story,” with a photograph of himself next to Ko and his wife, Peggy Chen (陳珮琪), holding a manuscript that is to be published next month.
Asked by reporters about speculation that the visits implied a presidential run, and perhaps a tactical voting campaign to capture votes from President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the mayor did not comment directly.
Visiting Lee or Chen Shui-bian is something that comes naturally, because he visits both men regularly, he said.
He had not seen Lee since the former president was hospitalized last year, because he did not want Lee’s doctor to feel pressured if he asked technical questions about Lee’s condition, Ko said, so he waited to visit him at home after Lee recovered.
He has a “doctor-patient relationship” with Chen Shui-bian, so he always visits him when he is in Kaohsiung, and since Chen served as Taipei mayor as well as president, he can learn many things from talking with him, Ko said.
Media reports of the visits as “drawing pro-independence figures to his side” or “starting a tactical voting campaign” were just creating conspiracies, he said.
Asked if Chen Shui-bian was upset about a remark Ko made in 2017 about Chen having faked his illness, Ko said no, adding that “[Chen] does not have to fake his illness, because he has become really ill.”
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