President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has teamed up with Taiwanese YouTube host Tsai A-ga (蔡阿嘎) in two short videos.
One was titled “Ga with Celebrity to Talk about Taiwanese” and the other “What is the President up to?” Within 24 hours of being posted on Tuesday, they received 670,000 and 220,000 views respectively.
It was the first time that Tsai Ing-wen had worked with a Taiwanese YouTube celebrity, and many people have said that this is the first time they have seen the president loosen up and show that she has a funny side.
In one video, Tsai A-ga joked with the president, saying that he had mistaken her for Masa (瑪莎), the bass player for Mayday.
He also jokingly called her “English Tsai,” a direct translation of her name, which can be taken as meaning “poor English,” and went on to joke that “I am the first YouTuber in the world to diss a nation’s president in person.”
The two traded banter, while the president also gave quick replies to short questions, and discussed interesting uses of Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) words and phrases.
The president later admitted that she was somewhat nervous at the beginning and even held her hands tightly, as it was the first time that she had taken part in this sort of entertainment.
Some netizens said that the videos are symbolic of Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.
“After watching this, I feel proud to live in a free, democratic society in Taiwan,” one person wrote.
“No matter if you like her or not, we should appreciate the liberties and freedom of speech we enjoy in Taiwan,” another wrote.
Other commentators said that Taiwan has what many other countries do not.
“It is impossible for China to have these kinds of videos,” one person wrote.
In the second video, the president gave the Republic of China flag to Tsai A-ga at the Presidential Office, and announced that the YouTuber has been chosen to represent the nation later this summer in New York.
The New York Mets baseball club is hosting a Taiwan Heritage Night at the team’s Citi Field, with a pre-game ceremony featuring Tsai A-ga.
“We look forward to Tsai A-ga taking our flag to the New York Mets’ stadium,” Tsai Ing-wen said.
Presidential Office spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) said that the president regularly posts messages on her Facebook page and she shares photographs on Instagram.
Her official Line messaging app account has gained more than 200,000 followers in two months, Lin said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS