Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said remarks made by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) — who said an election win for Tsai would harm agricultural exports — were “disappointing,” urging him to do more than just scare people.
“The KMT presidential candidate is unable to show his party’s achievements from good governance [in the past seven years], or to present complete and constructive planning for the economy and industries. Instead [Chu] only continuously plays the ‘threat’ card,” Tsai told reporters during a campaign outing in Changhua County.
“The people of Taiwan would be disappointed,” she said.
Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times
Instead of making threats, Chu should brainstorm what he could do to improve the competitiveness of the agricultural sector in the international market, Tsai added.
The DPP, unlike the KMT, has a complete set of planning that covers exploring new markets, as well as enhanced management and planting for the agricultural sector, which could help it find more opportunities, Tsai said.
On Saturday, Chu said that during the DPP administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), the government was “unfriendly” toward local farmers’ and fishermen’s associations by taking over the credit departments of 36 such organizations, making it difficult for the associations to expand their businesses.
Tsai said the credit departments were taken over by the government at the time because they were suffering from bad debts and excess loans, pushing them to the edge of collapse.
Tsai defended DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) in the face of accusations by New Taipei City prosecutor Huang Meng-shan (黃孟珊) that Tuan had tried to interfere in a case by pressuring the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to add dehydrated gypsum to a list of permitted food additives after a food manufacturer was indicted for using the substance in its products.
Tuan denied the allegation, saying that he merely helped the food manufacturer to petition the FDA, as dehydrated gypsum is a legal food additive in many other countries.
“Tuan has explained the incident clearly, what he has done is what a lawmaker should do, and he is now preparing to file a lawsuit over the allegations,” Tsai said.
“He is handling the situation in a responsible way,” she said.
Tsai denied a report by the Chinese-language China Times that the DPP has lowered its expected number of legislative seats in constituencies in northern Taiwan after Chu joined the presidential race.
“The rumor is inaccurate,” Tsai said. “The election campaign as a whole has been stable for us and we are campaigning according to our original plans.”
“Our rival is making up stories,” she added.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe