New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), both candidates in next year’s presidential election, yesterday made a rare appearance together at the premiere of a documentary in Taipei.
The arrival of Hou and Ko in quick succession to an already crowded screening room caused a commotion as reporters scrambled to take photographs of them sitting together and shaking hands.
Their appearance temporarily disrupted the event and overshadowed the premiere of Taiwanese, Forward (台灣人前進), a documentary about democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水) and his resistance movement in the 1920s against Japanese rule of Taiwan.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Following the screening, Hou, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential nominee, said he was “touched” by Chiang’s efforts to pursue democracy in Taiwan.
“We are all born here in Taiwan and are nurtured by this land,” he said, adding that it was important for Taiwanese to set aside their differences and work together for a better future.
“It is my dream to unite Taiwan,” he said.
Ko — who has on more than one occasion expressed his admiration for Chiang and named his party after Chiang’s Taiwanese People’s Party, despite opposition from Chiang’s descendants — said he would “inherit” Chiang’s unfinished work.
“I was thinking about the goals Chiang Wei-shui was unable to achieve 100 years ago... We can now take on the challenge and strive to [fulfill them],” he said, without specifying what those goals were.
The 51-minute documentary chronicles the legacy of Chiang and the Taiwanese Cultural Association, an organization founded by Chiang and others calling for greater autonomy for Taiwanese living under Japanese rule.
Established in 1921, the association was dedicated to cultivating cultural and political thinking among Taiwanese through lectures, theater and movie screenings, at a time when only affluent families could afford higher education.
Chiang, who had trained as a doctor, devoted much of his life to politics and is widely remembered as one of the earliest democracy activists in Taiwan.
The premiere was held on the campus of the Blessed Imelda’s School in Taipei, where the cultural association was headquartered more than a century ago.
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
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
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
RSS