Losing more than 150,000 supporters on Facebook in a month demonstrates the unstable nature of Taiwan’s “extreme politics,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
The number of people who “like” Ko’s Facebook page dropped below 2 million on Saturday, with more than 150,000 accounts removing their support between Aug. 1 and Sunday night.
Asked whether he thought his “indiscreet remarks” might have fueled the sharp drop, Ko said that he has been engaged in self-reflection, noting that his Facebook page also gained about 150,000 “likes” in one month after he won his re-election bid last year.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
He said that the ideal Taiwanese society he has in mind is resilient and stable, not like the prevailing “extreme politics,” which is similar to extreme climate change.
“The number of fans [on Facebook] can rise and fall suddenly and sharply,” Ko said. “This is like a person suddenly turning fat and then thin, which is not healthy.”
Ko has said on numerous occasions that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) inspiring a “Han wave” and winning last year’s mayoral election is an example of the nation’s “extreme politics.”
Asked about Han’s remark on Sunday that his “Taiwanese values” are democracy and freedom, Ko said that democracy and freedom naturally form the core of Taiwanese values, but Han should explain if there are other values.
Ko has also repeatedly questioned President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) about her “Taiwanese values” and once said her answer was “nonsense.”
Asked about Han’s comment that “Tsai is receiving blood while Hong Kong is bleeding,” implying that Tsai has benefited from the ongoing protests in Hong Kong, Ko said that speaking frankly might be good in some occasions, but one should be careful and hold to a consistent principle when making comments about cross-strait relations.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS