President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that it would have negative consequences for former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) medical parole if she were to respond to his claim that she has cut a deal with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to renew the Democratic Progressive Party’s endorsement for the Nov. 24 Taipei mayoral election.
In “The New Saga of Yung the Brave” (新勇哥物語), a Line chat group Chen has set up, he said that Ko and Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳珮琪), have met with Tsai at the presidential residence.
There are no rules requiring a primary for the Taipei mayoral race and the DPP candidate is directly nominated by the party’s chairperson, Tsai, Chen Shui-bian said in the group, which he named after a dog he kept when he was president.
At the meeting, Tsai told Ko she had decided that the DPP would team up with him for the election, as it did in 2014, Chen Shui-bian said, adding that Tsai’s previous remark that “if [the DPP] loses the election, it could end up finishing third” was meant as a smokescreen for her plan.
The source of the rumor is likely Chen Shui-bian’s conversation with friends on social media and people should not to blow it out of proportion, Tsai said yesterday, as she continued her visit to Hualien County to promote tourism there in the aftermath of the Feb. 6 magnitude 6.0 earthquake.
It would be inappropriate for her to respond to the rumor in her capacity of president, as it would “politicize the issue” and “have consequences for former president Chen [Shui-bian’s] medical parole,” Tsai said.
Asked to confirm whether the DPP’s private opinion polls on the Taipei mayoral election included Premier William Lai (賴清德) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) as potential candidates, Tsai said such rumors are not entirely accurate.
The DPP will disclose its plans for the Taipei mayoral election once its Electoral Strategy Committee has completed an analysis of the different scenarios, finished discussions with “other political parties” and issued a formal recommendation to party headquarters, she said
Ko yesterday told media that “it was Yung the Brave who made the disclosure,” rather than Chen Shui-bian.
“Why are you asking me? You should be asking Yung the Brave,” he said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
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