The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday blamed Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) for an outbreak of dengue fever in the city, while Tainan City Council Speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) railed against Lai for boycotting city council sessions, attributing the outbreak to his absence.
More than 1,000 cases of dengue fever, two of which have been fatal, have been reported so far in Tainan.
Two KMT Tainan city councilors showed up at a news conference held by the KMT caucus in Taipei to accuse Lai of neglecting the health of the city’s residents.
KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said Lai, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, has been preoccupied with a dispute with the Control Yuan while 23 of the city’s 37 districts have reported cases of dengue.
“The fact that Tainan is in the middle of an outbreak shows that Lai, who is also a physician, has not been attentive [to municipal affairs],” she said.
KMT Legislator Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) urged the central government to hold Lai accountable for his boycott of city council meetings, which has resulted in city officials breaking the law and disease-prevention work going unfinished.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who was invited by the caucus to participate in the news conference, said the outbreak intensified after high temperatures and heavy rain in May and June, and that most of the city’s residents lack immunity to the strain of dengue that has been prevalent this year.
Chuang said the agency has sent teams to help the city government with preventive measures.
Meanwhile in Tainan, Lee accused Lai of tainting the city’s reputation and hurting its tourism industry with his boycott of city council meetings, which he said could have facilitated cooperation between the city government and the council on a budget increase for disease prevention.
Lai yesterday said that the dengue outbreak this year has been serious, adding that this strain of the disease has not been observed in the city in more than a decade.
Lai said the city government has not been sufficiently vigilant, as last year Tainan had only 200 cases, while neighboring Kaohsiung had more than 10,000. However, he said city authorities were undertaking necessary action, including handing out penalties to people found with exposed containers of water, which mosquitoes can use to breed.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS