The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday rejected accusations that its candidate in March 4’s Nantou County legislative by-election, former legislator Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧), is a “parachute candidate.”
DPP Deputy Secretary-General Huang Chien-chia (黃建嘉) said that criticism of Tsai by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Lin Ming-chen (林明溱) should be measured against what he called Lin’s abuse of power to exploit the county’s finances and natural resources for personal gain.
Lin was in a conflict of interest when as Nantou County commissioner he appointed his son as a special assistant and hired another relative as chief office secretary, Huang said.
Photo: CNA
“Lin packed his family and relatives into positions in public projects,” he said.
Lin was Nantou County commissioner for two terms from 2014 to last year. Previously he was a legislator from 2008 to 2014, a county councilor for one term and served two terms as Jiji Township mayor from 1994 to 2002.
“Through these public offices, he hired his son and relatives to county government in flagrant abuses of power,” Huang said.
“As county commissioner, Lin exploited the people and county’s natural resources like a colony under control of his family’s fiefdom,” he added.
Huang also criticized Lin’s record.
“As commissioner, Nantou County’s population dropped to about 480,000. About 20 percent of businesses have closed. Throughout the county, many townships and villages have piled up garbage due to trash collection problems,” Huang said.
Lin earlier told a news conference at his campaign office that Tsai is a “parachute candidate” who serves “only her party’s needs, and she does not have local people’s best interest in mind.”
Tsai while canvassing responded by saying she served as executive secretary of the 921 Earthquake Reconstruction Foundation after a devastating earthquake centered in Jiji on Sept. 21, 1999, and worked to help townships and counties throughout Nantou recover.
“At that time, when Lin was mayor of Jiji Township, the funding for a local cultural festival came from our foundation,” she said.
A native of Nantou’s Yuchi Township (魚池), Tsai was previously a professor who conducted research into agriculture economies. She has also been a DPP legislator-at-large, during which time she said she secured funding to build road sections for farmers, and pushed to secure farmer retirement pensions.
At Lin’s news conference, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Lin Chia-hsing (林家興) said that Tsai supported projects that harmed the environment and “has no popular support.”
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS