The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said the government raised fuel prices to reflect increases in global fuel costs and to reduce long-term losses at state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC), dismissing accusations by the Democratic Progressive Party that the fuel price increase had been delayed to influence the January presidential and legislative elections.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs scrapped restrictions on fuel price increases on Sunday and allowed CPC to raise the prices for gasoline and diesel.
The DPP accused the government of increasing fuel prices while failing to review CPC’s high personnel costs, and said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration had used adjustments to fuel price policies for election purposes.
The DPP said the legislature passed DPP Legislator Pan Men-an’s (潘孟安) proposal of freezing fuel prices and subsidizing the nation’s oil products in November 2010 and that the CPC announced the policy before the five special municipality elections that month.
Following the presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 14, the Ma administration lifted the cap on fuel price increases last week and the DPP said that the fuel price increase had been delayed to avoid negatively affecting the KMT’s electoral prospects.
KMT spokesperson Lai Su-ju (賴素如) responded to the DPP’s criticism, saying the fuel price freeze was announced on Dec. 6, 2010, which was after the five special municipality elections that took place on Nov. 27.
Since December 2010, the government has been subsidizing the nation’s oil products in an attempt to stabilize consumer costs by covering half of any necessary price increase.
“Fuel price adjustments are being made to reflect the global fuel price hike,” Lai said.
“The government continues to put the public’s livelihood into consideration and the DPP should not make unnecessary connections between the fuel price increases and elections,” she said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
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Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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