Former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday alleged that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) as a means to secure votes for itself.
Han made the remarks in an interview on the Broadcasting Corp of China with network president Jaw Shaw-kang (趙少康).
Whenever the DPP faces the possibility of losing an election, it calls on TSMC to establish a plant in a county or city that is failing, Han said, adding that the chipmaker is like a “special branch” of the DPP similar to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) relationship with the Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) military veterans’ branch, whose members are considered party loyalists.
Photo: CNA
He also said that the DPP is “dismembering” TSMC.
Han said that young people are “waking up” and that the DPP is “treating the younger generation like fools.”
Future leaders are not blind to government corruption and the way county commissioners become billionaires at the end of their terms, he said.
Young people do not support authoritarianism and are not bound by tradition, Han said, citing the 72 Martyrs of Huanghuagang uprising in Guangzhou as an example of how young people are not afraid to risk fighting for change.
The 72 Martyrs launched the failed Second Guangzhou Uprising against the Qing Empire on April 27, 1911.
The DPP is aware of this change in attitude among young people, which is why the party has halted subsidies to help them travel back to their registered home town residences to vote, Han said.
The DPP is attempting to control the number of people who can vote by declaring that people who test positive for COVID-19 cannot enter polling stations.
Han said that military personnel — largely composed of young people carrying out mandatory service — are being affected by a DPP decision to rotate shifts on election day.
It is “preposterous” that military personnel cannot vote even when there is no threat of war, he added.
Jaw said during the interview that “voting for the DPP increases the risk of youth going into battle.”
Han responded by saying that those aged 18 to 24 are the primary casualties of war, and that peace must prevail.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in