Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has claimed that a potential collaboration with the Democratic Progressive Party for the mayoral election fell through because President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is being controlled by certain members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a report by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times) said yesterday.
Sources said that at a meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) on Tuesday last week, Ko said that Tsai originally wanted to collaborate with him in the November mayoral election, but that she is now being controlled by the “empress,” referring to Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊), and the “prince,” referring to the DPP’s former New Tide faction, the report said.
Ko also told Wang that if he did not win re-election, he would return to work as a doctor.
Asked about his meeting with Wang, Ko yesterday said: “I met with former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng last week mainly to discuss the Taiwan Healthcare+ EXPO that is to be held at the end of the year.”
He said he also discussed political history with Wang, whom he described as a “living dictionary of the Republic of China’s [ROC] modern political history.”
The report in the Liberty Times was “a bit exaggerated,” as he and Wang just had a private conversation, he said.
Asked whether he made the comments about Tsai, Ko said: “I do not want to tell you.”
He added that he does not know if Tsai still supports him, but he would “cross that bridge” when he comes to it.
Each political party has its own factions, and that is not something he can deal with, Ko said.
Asked why a number of former Taipei City Government officials are publicly criticizing him, Ko said that former officials would not have left their posts if they had adapted to the administrative team’s operating style.
Wang also declined to talk about his conversation with Ko.
He said that they had a pleasant conversation and that Ko had asked him how he managed to deal with issues at the Legislative Yuan.
He said that he explained to Ko the importance of establishing personal credibility so that legislators believed that he would deliver on his promises and that they could work together based on mutual trust.
Wang added that Ko understands that he supports Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), and that he could not comment on whether Ko would return to being doctor if he loses the election.
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
RSS