The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday introduced limited-edition playing cards featuring “ridiculous” quotes from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians to help raise campaign funds.
Some of the more well-known quotes in the deck of 54 cards include President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) famous remark in November 2016 that “the DPP will always have a soft spot for the nation’s workers,” despite her administration’s series of controversial labor law amendments, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said.
Also included is Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) highly criticized suggestion in November last year that caretakers should look past their low salaries and “treat their jobs as a way to earn spiritual merit,” as well as his claim in March that a proposed coal-fired power plant on the site of the old Shenao Power Plant “would be using ‘clean’ coal,” Hung said.
Photo: CNA
“Two years and five months into Tsai’s tenure, she and many of her Cabinet members have made many unbelievable comments that the public have found unbearable,” Hung told a news conference in Taipei.
“So we decided to put together the most preposterous and printed them on playing cards as a way of telling voters that if you do not like what you have heard from the ruling party, you can vote against it in the local elections,” he said.
One of the two joker cards is to feature former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) famous question in February 2006: “Has A-bian [Chen’s nickname] done anything wrong?” Hung said.
Chen asked the question when addressing a crowd of supporters at a ceremony commemorating the 228 Incident amid threats of impeachment triggered by his announcement earlier that year that the National Unification Council would “cease to function” and the Guidelines for National Unification would “cease to apply.”
Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) was picked to be the other joker because his remarks have left Taiwanese wondering if he is rooting for Taiwan or Japan, Hung said.
For the quote, the KMT chose Hsieh’s remark in August last year that “Taiwan does not have a power shortage problem. We just do not know where our source of electricity is going to be,” as it is a slap in the face of the administration’s policy of phasing out nuclear energy by 2025, Hung said.
Starting yesterday, people can make a small donation at the KMT’s headquarters or any of its local branch offices in exchange for a deck of the cards, which cost NT$30 to manufacture.
“It can either be NT$1 or NT$100. The amount is entirely up to the people,” Hung said, adding that only 30,000 decks are available.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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