One day after a furious exchange in the city council chamber, Kaohsiung's mayor and council speaker shook hands yesterday to signal a truce in their dispute over who is paid the most.
Both, however, insisted that they had done nothing to provoke the other's wrath.
"We should have calmed down after tempers began to flare and lob no more accusations," Mayor Frank Hsieh (
"But, for all the respect I have for the speaker, who represents the council, he used inappropriate words [against me]," he said.
Showing no sign of giving in, the council's speaker, Huang Chi-chuan (
"I've only asked him to leave for a while, but he was like an old grandpa who couldn't be moved, and even challenged me by threatening to call the police," Huang said.
"Despite his understanding of the law, Hsieh openly challenged [my] authority to maintain order."
Following mediation by city councilors not involved in the dispute, Hsieh and Huang shook hands during a break in yesterday's session, only to quickly turn away from each other.
However, Huang later muttered to reporters that Hsieh should be disciplined by the Cabinet and the Control Yuan for his act of disrespect in leading a walk-out from Thursday's council meeting.
Earlier yesterday morning, DPP supporters, organized by one of the party's Kaohsiung legislative candidates, Lin Chin-hsin (
The group shouted at police dispatched to disperse their unauthorized gathering.
Yesterday's council session proceeded without incident. The dispute over who -- the mayor or city councilors -- is paid more wasn't raised during the session.
On Thursday, Hsieh argued that city councilors were paid more than the mayor in his response to questions on the matter by Councilors Chu Wen-ching (
Instead of attempting to settle the dispute or placate the combatants, Huang ordered Hsieh to leave the session, saying that the latter had shown "no sincerity" in answering the councilors' question.
Hsieh then walked out of the council chamber and asked other high-ranking officials to follow, saying that they should not answer the counsel's questions without him being present. The resulting walkout caused the council session to be cancelled.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS