Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that people should “just laugh it off and not be so sensitive,” when responding to reports that his close aide Taipei City Government adviser Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如) impugned President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on social media.
Screenshots were posted to the Professional Technology Temple (PTT) online bulletin board on Sunday, showing that Tsai Pi-ju shared a link to an article titled “Tsai Ing-wen’s missing thesis was not submitted says university library” with the caption “International news! National humiliation!” on a closed Line group chat with 216 members.
The post also read: “The end of the article says the president has no PhD degree, but a person without morality shouldn’t be a leader. It’s a national humiliation, please repost!”
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Another member of the group replied, asking her to remove the link, the screenshots showed.
Tsai Pi-ju on Sunday afternoon said that she did not mean to criticize Tsai Ing-wen’s doctoral dissertation and was only trying to “warn” the group members that such information was circulating online, but it has led to the “1450” criticizing her on PTT.
The term “1450” has been used by some people and Ko to sarcastically refer to those who have criticized them online as people who have been paid by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to disparage them.
“The 1450s do not have to be so sensitive,” she said.
Tsai Ing-wen on Sunday said that the Presidential Office has clarified the issue several times, so she urges people to stop spreading erroneous rumors.
Officials have sent Tsai Pi-ju the correct information, she added.
Ko yesterday said that Tsai Pi-ju only reposted a message in the group chat and it became a newspaper headline.
People should not take everything so seriously and argue over it, or else they will go crazy, he said.
Ko said everyone was making a fuss over a trivial matter, and that many similar messages are spread through online messaging, so people should just “just laugh it off and not be so sensitive, that’s all.”
Presidential Office spokesman Sydney Lin (林鶴明) yesterday wrote on his Facebook page that when the DPP was helping Ko face accusations over the National Taiwan University Hospital’s MG149 bank account in 2014, when he was running for Taipei mayor, nobody at the time could “just laugh it off.”
Ko was so angry that he had tears in his eyes when he said that he was being smeared by then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), Lin wrote, adding that he and those who helped Ko could not laugh at all at the time.
OFFLINE: People who do not wish to register can get the money from select ATMs using their bank card, ID number and National Health Insurance card number Online registration for NT$6,000 (US$196.32) cash payments drawn from last year’s tax surplus is to open today for eligible people whose national ID or permanent residency number ends in either a zero or a one, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday. Officials from the ministry revealed which days Taiwanese and eligible foreigners would be able to register for the cash payments at a joint news conference with the Ministry of Digital Affairs. Online registration is to open tomorrow for those whose number ends in a two or three; on Friday for those that end in a four or five: on Saturday
Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) officials are investigating why a Starlux Airlines flight to Penang, Malaysia, returned to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport nearly two hours after takeoff yesterday morning. The airline said in a statement that Flight JX721 to Penang took off from Taoyuan airport at 9:20am. “After the dashboard showed a signal of an abnormality in the hydraulic system, the captain followed standard operating procedures and returned the flight to Taoyuan airport for safety precautions,” the airline said, adding that the flight landed safely at the airport at 11:04am. The airline arranged for the passengers to have lunch after the flight landed and
TECH PROGRAM: A US official said that an important part of the delegation’s trip would be to meet with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co executives The US is to send officials in charge of chip development to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to promote cooperation in the global semiconductor supply chain, the US Department of Commerce said on Tuesday. Chips Program Office Director Michael Schmidt announced the visit, which marks the first time officials from the office are to visit the three nations since it was set up in September last year. “As semiconductors and technologies continue to evolve, the United States will keep working with allies and partners to develop coordinated strategies to ensure that malign actors cannot use the latest technologies to undermine our collective
WORKING UP AN APPETITE: Sales at the Rueifong Night Market surged 20 to 30 percent, while seats at Liouhe Night Market were packed until 1am, market officials said South Korean pop band Blackpink’s concerts over the weekend in Kaohsiung helped draw large crowds to local night markets, the Kaohsiung City Government said yesterday. The two concerts on Saturday and Sunday at Kaohsiung National Stadium drew more than 90,000 people. The city government offered NT$50 vouchers to spend locally to concertgoers who showed their ticket stubs. Liouhe Night Market (六合夜市) management committee head Chuang Chi-chang (莊其章) said that crowds over the weekend surged at about 10pm and the market remained packed until 1:30am. “Almost all the seats were filled,” Chuang said. Night market stall owners had stocked up in expectation of an increased number