President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign office yesterday dismissed the People First Party’s (PFP) accusations against its executive director King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) that he was interfering in the government’s decisionmaking process, insisting King’s role was as an aide and campaign strategist for the president.
PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) on Tuesday confirmed his presidential candidacy as the number of signatures in his presidential petition reached 355,589.
At Tuesday’s press conference, PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (張昭雄) and former legislator Li Ao (李敖) challenged Ma’s performance and accused King of interfering in government policies under a “Ma-King mechanism.”
They said King was the decisionmaker while Ma was only responsible for executing policies.
Ma’s election campaign spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) yesterday said that in the years since Ma took office, King was out of the country for almost two years, adding that King has never been involved in policymaking.
“As President Ma’s aide, Mr King always fulfilled his duties with caution. He never crossed the line, abused his power or broke the law. Those who make the accusations should offer solid evidence, and Mr King will accept public examination,” he said.
According to Yin, King did not take any post in the Presidential Office or Cabinet after Ma assumed office in 2008, and he was a visiting academic in Hong Kong and the US before taking over as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) secretary-general in 2009.
As the camp’s executive director, King has focused his efforts on the election campaign and never participated in the planning of government policies, he said.
Yin’s comments came amid a KMT instruction that asked its party members to refrain from criticizing Soong or the PFP.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS