Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday rejected a rumor that he had recently met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
A political commentator said that after Tsai won the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential primary on Thursday, she met with Ko, promising to allow him to run Taipei smoothly in exchange for him not running for president.
Ko said that the last time he met with Tsai was in December last year, when Cabinet officials met with city government officials near the city’s historic North Gate (北門).
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“After the meeting at the North Gate, I did not even see her in my dreams,” he said. “I do not think she would want to meet with me, either.”
Tsai, while visiting Kinmen County yesterday, also rejected the rumor.
In other news, Ko on Friday sparked debate when, in response to media queries about Tsai winning the primary, he said: “Congratulations to the empress.”
“Saying ‘congratulations’ would be enough, the words after that could be omitted. After all, we are a democratic country,” Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), said on Facebook that afternoon.
Political talk show host Ines Chen (陳凝觀) said on Facebook that night that “Ko sarcastically commented that Tsai is an empress, but he has never dared to make comments about Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who has been perceived by the international community as an emperor.”
“Is it because Ko lacks global perspective? Or is it that Ko only dares to criticize his political opponents and shuts up when he sees the People’s Republic of China or emperor Xi?” she wrote. “If Ko does not dare respond, then he is an opportunistic politician.”
“We live in Taiwan and are concerned about what happens here, so sometimes I make some critical remarks,” Ko said yesterday.
“As for Xi being the emperor in Beijing, what does it have to do with me? We care more about what happens around us. Taiwan is our hometown, of course I care more about Taiwan’s affairs,” he said.
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