Taiwan Nation Office director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) was detained by police yesterday for throwing plastic slippers at Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) during a fire inspection at the Taipei Railway Station.
Chen said in his affidavit that his actions “were a reminder for Ko not to run his mouth.”
Ko’s comment that “if we do not have sufficient power to back up our claims [to restrain China’s expansion], then we should not [make such claims]” directly contradicts President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) comments and could cause the nation’s claims to be seen as a joke, Chen said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Tsai called on nations of the world to “restrain China’s expansion” in an interview with Agence France Presse published on Monday.
Chen also said that he did not intend to harm Ko, or else he would have used rocks or a mallet instead of plastic slippers.
Chen attempted to throw two red plastic slippers at Ko while shouting: “Don’t walk the same path as the Chinese communists,” police said.
Photo provided by police
He missed Ko with the slippers, hitting his security unit instead, police said.
When asked if police officers’ handling of the issue was sufficient, Ko said that it was acceptable, adding that he is used to such incidents and continued the inspection.
Chen is to be charged with obstruction of official affairs under the Criminal Code and contravention of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), police said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS