Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said he would not respond to a derogatory epithet that singer Christine Fan (范瑋琪) used to refer to him after he ordered a halt on exports of masks amid fears of a local novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.
Fan on Tuesday wrote on Facebook that Su was a “damned thug,” a “dog of a bureaucrat” and a “bastard” for issuing a directive on Friday last week to suspend exports of N95 respirators and masks made of woven materials until Feb. 23.
Fan wrote that Su was “inhuman” and asked whether an ordinary human being could have done such a thing.
Photo: Wang Wen-lin, Taipei Times
She deleted the post after it prompted outrage online and on Tuesday apologized, writing that she only hopes that people would “treat one another with love and care.”
However, Fan’s apology did not appease many, with about 172,000 Facebook users reacting to it with the “angry” emoji, while many left angry comments.
“Apparently, renminbi smells better. Before asking for people to show more love and care, why don’t you start with yourself?” Alison Wu wrote. “There is a shortage of masks domestically, yet you worry about the country on the other side of the Taiwan Strait first.”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) yesterday said he received a call from Fan’s husband, TV personality Blackie Chen (陳建州), asking Ho to arrange a meeting between Su, his wife and himself, so that the couple could apologize to the premier in person.
Ho said he agreed to Chen’s request and relayed the message to Su’s office.
Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka quoted Su as saying that he would not pay any attention to Fan’s comments.
Su asked the couple to join efforts to prevent the spread of 2019-nCoV, which is the “most pressing matter at hand,” she said.
However, Su did not decline the couple’s request for a meeting, as some media reported, Kolas said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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