Taipei prosecutors yesterday dismissed a defamation case brought by Want Want China Times Media Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) against three media figures who said that his “colorless awakening” agenda was Chinese propaganda to force Taiwan to submit to Chinese rule.
Former National Assembly member Huang Peng-hsiao (黃澎孝), writer Wang Hao (汪浩) and political commentator Huang Chuang-hsia (黃創夏) were named as defendants in the case after in 2019 they said on political talk shows that Tsai’s ideas for a “colorless awakening” were straight out of China’s “united front” playbook, and said that Tsai allegedly had close ties to the leadership in Beijing.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that the case would not proceed, as “the defendants had a basis for their opinions, and the topic was of public interest.”
On ERA TV programs in June and September 2019, Wang and the two Huang’s said that Tsai’s 10-point agenda included “recognizing that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the same family, are from the same root and ethnicity, and that Taiwanese are Chinese.”
It also included “helping Taiwanese to understand the Chinese Communist Party”; “discussing a process and model for unification with China”; and “support for Chinese companies to directly invest in Taiwan,” they said at the time.
The agenda was lifted directly from China’s “united front” work, while Want Want’s support for then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) was because Han, who was Kaohsiung mayor at the time, in 2018 became the first politician to sign Tsai’s pledge, Huang Peng-hsiao told the TV show.
Wang and Huang Chuang-hsia expressed similar opinions on a later show, prompting Tsai to name the three as defendants.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS