Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has come under fire from legislators after he compared the nation to a bank robber in its relationships with China and the US during a TV interview on Friday evening.
Ko said he is concerned that Taiwan’s space for survival is shrinking under the influence of China and the US.
He first expressed the view on Thursday evening in a live interview with Internet fitness celebrity Holger Chen (陳之漢), in which Ko said that the precarious cross-strait relationship is characterized by Taiwan trying to find a balance.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“How can we expand our space? It is much more difficult than it was eight years ago,” Ko said, adding that China’s red line used to be Taiwan declaring independence, while the US used to demand that China not occupy and govern Taiwan.
However, due to trade tensions, China wants Taiwan to express its willingness to unify, while the US wants Taiwan to take a stance against China or even “follow it with a drill in hand,” he said.
During the interview on Friday, Ko was asked if it would be possible to gain more international space if Taiwan developed a better relationship with the US.
He said that doing so would be like “robbing a bank” and getting arrested because the robber “only saw the money and did not notice the police.”
“Taiwan is already facing a difficult diplomatic situation with China suppressing us in all aspects, so we hope everyone can support the government,” Democratic Progressive Party spokeswoman Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said, adding that most Taiwanese could not accept comparing the nation to a “robber” and China to “the police.”
Former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said that people should not use random metaphors to describe the nation’s diplomacy or cross-strait relations, because they “can offend Taiwan’s friends.”
Asked about his remarks yesterday, Ko said he meant that when contacting China or the US, Taiwan must pay attention to how the other responds.
He did not intend to belittle any person or country in the metaphor, he said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS