Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday came under fire from pro-independence groups for a remark he made in Shanghai earlier this week that Taiwan and China belonged to “one family.”
Members of the 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign yesterday protested in front of the Taipei City Government building, demanding an apology from Ko for what they called his “inappropriate” remark.
Group founder Peter Wang (王獻極) said that Taiwan and China are two nations and enemies with each other.
Photo: Tu Chu-min, Taipei Times
“Under this circumstance, how can we be in ‘one family’?” he asked.
He said Ko had “kissed up” to Beijing and that he had won last year’s mayoral election by “swindling” Taipei voters, citing a pre-election press conference held by a group at which Ko tore up his Republic of China (ROC) identification card and received a symbolic “Taiwan Republic” identification card.
He said that Ko’s stance on cross-strait issues is even worse than the “one China, different interpretations” stance adopted by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Group director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) said that if Taiwan and China were to be one family, China should first withdraw all of its missiles targeting Taiwan and acknowledge Taiwan as a nation.
Ko rejected the allegations that he had swindled his way to his post as Taipei mayor and changed his position on Taiwan’s identity.
Asked to comment on the criticism during a meeting to discuss city policies, Ko said: “I did not swindle votes. If that [ripping his ROC identity card] was swindling, people’s votes, I was doing it from day one. There was no sudden change in direction,” he said.
With reference to his trip to Shanghai earlier this week, he said: “I told officials at the [People’s Republic of China’s] Taiwan Affairs Office that it was China that decided to abandon us [Taiwan] in 1895, and now it expects us to go back. I told them: ‘You need to think about how others feel sometimes,’” he said.
On why he had not informed reporters that he had been scheduled to meet with Taiwan Affairs Office Liaison Bureau Director Liu Junchuan (劉軍川) on Tuesday, he said that Chinese officials arranged the meeting only after assessing his behavior during the first day of his visit.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
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