New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, yesterday criticized Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德), saying the latter’s true colors of supporting Taiwanese independence would bring disaster to the Taiwan Strait.
Hou made the remark during the KMT’s new year flag-raising ceremony at its headquarters in Taipei.
Taiwan is facing labor shortages, low wages, high inflation and price hikes, which “make it impossible for the nation’s economy to grow,” he said.
Photo: CNA
Other economic challenges include a Chinese investigation into Taiwan’s trade barriers and being unable to join regional trading entities, he said.
Taiwanese chose “lack” (que, 缺) as last year’s word of the year, he said, adding that the DPP lacks the ability to govern and to reflect, he said, going on to criticize Lai’s remarks that the Republic of China (ROC) and the ROC Constitution are disasters, saying that they must have provoked profound thoughts for many Taiwanese.
Hou was referring to something Lai said in the televised presidential debate on Saturday: “Is regarding the ROC as a ‘sacred mountain protecting the country’ going to promote peace or bring disaster to Taiwan?” later clarifying that he meant “the ROC Constitution” rather than “the ROC.”
Lai supporting Taiwan independence at heart would make the Taiwan Strait unstable and unsafe, Hou said.
Hou vowed to protect the ROC and its people, proposing his “deterrence, dialogue, de-escalation” strategy to peacefully resolve the differences between China and Taiwan.
Taiwan should contribute to regional stability instead of provoking war by seeking independence, he said.
Hou solicited votes for himself and his running mate, Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Chao Shao-kang (趙少康), saying that they could bring a good life and a happy future to Taiwanese.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said Hou truly loves Taiwan and would fight for the nation.
If elected, Hou would uphold the spirit of former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), who dedicated his life to serving the country and was always diligent and honest, improving Taiwan, Chu said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching