Taichung legislative candidate Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) yesterday criticized fellow candidate Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) for suggesting they use English to debate next month’s referendum questions.
During a campaign event on Sunday in Wufeng District (霧峰), former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) proposed that the two candidates have a one-on-one debate on the four referendum questions.
Asked if she was brave enough for the “showdown,” Lin Ching-yi replied: “No problem. I can also do it in English.”
Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times
After an enthusiastic response from the crowd, Lin Chia-lung said that Yen could choose whichever language he wants for the debate: English, Chinese or Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese).
The candidates are running in a by-election on Jan. 9 to replace Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟), a former Taiwan Statebuilding Party legislator for Taichung’s second electoral district who was recalled last month.
Yen, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member who held the seat before Chen, hit back yesterday during an interview, asking in Hoklo if the people of Taichung’s second district want to hear a debate in English.
“Lin Ching-yi still thinks she is an at-large legislator,” unaware that she is running to represent a local district with local needs, Yen said.
However, he added that he is up for the challenge, if the debate is on the needs or future of the district.
Lin Ching-yi gave an enthusiastic response on Facebook, saying they should debate the referendum questions in Hoklo.
When deliberating the
Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program in the legislature last term, Lin Ching-yi said that she worked hard to prepare questions and understand the bill, which had significant ramifications for individual constituents.
“Maybe my opponent was busy with water balloons and flour,” she said, referring to the chaos that followed a failed KMT filibuster of the bill in 2017.
The Legislative Yuan does not need another lawmaker looking to throw things around, but a professional who has the people’s best interests in mind, she added.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS