The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday lampooned President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) ahead of the second anniversary of her inauguration, saying that her administration has failed to deliver on campaign promises on livelihood issues.
Tsai should sincerely apologize to the Taiwanese when she makes her anniversary speech on Sunday, KMT spokesman Huang Chien-hao (黃健豪) told a news conference at the KMT’s headquarters in Taipei.
Tsai has said she has a “soft spot” for the nation’s workers, but her administration pushed for the “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” scheme and the abolition of seven national holidays with its amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), Huang said.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Nationalist Party
The government then flip-flopped and amended the act again, canceling the rule requiring one mandatory rest day for every seven consecutive days of work and reduced the rest time for shift work for approved sectors, he said.
“These changes have led to an increase in overwork,” he said.
The government on May 1 said an average worker’s monthly salary is NT$49,989, and it more recently claimed that the actual average income for this quarter is NT$59,852, but about half of workers are actually paid less than NT$36,000 per month, Huang said.
Tsai vowed to create a transparent government and has criticized former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for ignoring the will of the people, but her government has built bigger barriers against protestors than any other administration, Huang said.
When the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in opposition, Tsai promised to not hike electricity rates for 10 years, while the DPP blasted the KMT for raising the price of electricity and gas, he said.
Electricity rates have gone up by an average of 3 percent for businesses that use up to 500 kilowatt-hours per month, he said.
“Two years into Tsai’s presidency, prices for consumer products, gas and electricity have gone up, but salaries have not,” he said.
The DPP originally proposed to phase out nuclear power and reduce the nation’s reliance on coal, but the Tsai administration has opted to build a new coal-fired plant in New Taipei City, instead of the initially planned natural gas-fired plant, Huang said.
Her administration has also decided to reactivate one reactor each at the Guosheng and Ma-anshan nuclear power plants, even though building a “nuclear-free homeland” is a DPP slogan, he said.
As an opposition party, the DPP criticized the Ma administration’s plan to allow food imports from five Japanese prefectures following the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in 2011, but is now considering allowing such imports, he said.
It also resisted the KMT’s proposal to allow US pork imports, but the Tsai administration has also reversed its position on that issue, Huang said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS