Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) issued a video apology on Friday over recent controversies involving her, including accusations by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors that her boyfriend had tried to meddle in an event the city was planning to hold.
In the two-and-a-half-minute video, Kao, a member of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), apologized for the media coverage surrounding Lee Chung-ting (李忠庭), the man the DPP councilors said was her boyfriend.
“I apologize to the general public and citizens for the recent controversies and extensive media coverage that have occupied a significant portion of media space,” Kao said.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
She announced that, effective immediately, city government officials are prohibited from having any contact with Lee. Any violation would lead to severe punishment, Kao said, adding that it applies to her as well.
Kao said that Lee has never been involved with any municipal decisionmaking, and a limited number of city officials, who were old acquaintances of Lee, maintained what she called ‘social interactions’ with him.
“Mr Lee has never set foot in the mayor’s office,” she said.
CONTROVERSIES
Kao’s remarks came amid controversies about her handling of potential conflicts of interest, following accusations from former Hsinchu Cultural Affairs Bureau director Chien Kang-ming (錢康明) that Lee had attempted to meddle in the city’s governance.
Chien said that he had been asked by Kao to resign by Sunday last week, and Lee sought to interfere in city affairs by telling him how to deal with a New Year’s Eve party.
Chien alleged that Lee said the party would be an event jointly held by the Hsinchu city and county governments, and Chien should leave the matter to him.
Kao is awaiting trial in a separate corruption case, after being indicted by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month in connection with the alleged misuse of public funds while she was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 2020 to last year.
Kao has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Over the past few weeks, she has also been involved in other controversies, including allegations of a close relationship with property developers.
However, there has not been any evidence presented that she had violated any laws or conducted herself in a way that has harmed Hsinchu.
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: China would not blockade Taiwan, because President Xi respects him, and Russia would not have invaded if he were president, he said Former US president and the Republican candidate in next month’s presidential election Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on China if China were to “go into Taiwan,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you, at 150 percent to 200 percent,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview with the WSJ published on Friday. Asked if he would use military force against a blockade on Taiwan by China, Trump said it would not come to that because Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) respected
The Taipei Department of Transportation discouraged YouBike 2.0E users from taking them on long-distance trips after a Taipei city councilor said that riders often use the new electric bike, YouBike 2.0E, to climb Yangmingshan (陽明山). Taipei earlier this year began offering the first 30 minutes of YouBike 2.0 rentals for free, with Taipei and New Taipei offering the YouBike 2.0E on Aug. 30 to encourage rider usage. For YouBike 2.0, the rate is NT$10 per 30 minutes within the first four hours, NT$20 per 30 minutes for five to eight hours and NT$40 per 30 minutes after eight hours. Meanwhile, for e-bikes,
RESOURCE RICH: Taiwan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and has up to 30 gigawatts of the potential energy, of which 10 gigawatts could be economically viable Academia Sinica and CPC Corp yesterday began drilling the nation’s first deep geothermal well in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township (員山). The 4km-deep well is expected to take 18 months to complete and has an estimated investment of NT$337 million (US$10.54 million), Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said. “While Taiwan has up to 30 gigawatts of potential deep geothermal energy, with an estimated 10 gigawatts being economically viable, only by digging wells can we determine the actual amount of commercially viable geothermal energy,” Liao said at the project’s opening ceremony. Data collected during and after the excavation process would be used for future
HACKERS’ MARKET: Chat logs about Taiwan and documents outlining ways to take over online accounts were leaked from a company that sells data from hacks Taiwanese cybersecurity specialists found 577 leaked documents which show that the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, a documentary released last month by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed. The filmmakers behind Tracking China’s Leaked Documents said they spent six months visiting seven countries, including Taiwan, where they interviewed members of TeamT5, a malware research and cybersecurity firm, which found the leaked documents. TeamT5 said they discovered a string of mysterious URLs on the social media platform X, which they suspected could be accounts created by hackers or people who leaked data, which led