POLITICS
TPP attacked for comments
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) has encountered criticism in recent days for lobbying to raise the lunch allowance for legislators while cutting other government budgets, saying their NT$100 stipend is “not even enough to buy a McDonald’s meal.” People online have started calling Chang “French Fry Bro” (薯條哥) over his proposal to increase funds for lawmakers’ lunches. One Taipei resident, surnamed Liu (劉), told reporters that lawmakers are “cutting so many budgetary items, impacting government and society, yet they want to increase their own meal stipend. But it is not needed, as they are all very well-off and already enjoy lots of perks and subsidies.” Earlier this week when Chang chaired a meeting examining the budget, he said they had recently ordered fast food for lunch when budget review meetings were extended into the afternoon. “But each McDonald’s meal was missing some items,” Chang said. “So we need to boost funds for meals, and should have no problem adjusting this,” he said, suggesting to add NT$10 or NT$20 to the budget. Chang later said that legislators usually order lunch boxes, but at that time, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) wanted to treat everyone to something different, so he ordered from McDonald’s.
CRIME
Rail trespasser sentenced
The Changhua District Court has sentenced a man to three years and two months in prison for trespassing on a railway crossing while riding his motorcycle. The court found the man, surnamed Lai (賴), guilty of an offense against traffic safety, according to the verdict issued on Jan. 14. The ruling said that in June last year, the man raised the gate to cross the railway crossing as warning bells were sounding and warning lights were flashing in an attempt to catch a train at Ershui Station (二水) in Changhua County. The ruling said that the driver of the approaching train saw the trespasser when he was about 60m away and managed to ring the warning bell and hit the brakes in time. Lai was seen speeding off on his motorcycle to the other side, ramming into and breaking the lowered gate. The court said that if the train had hit Lai, it could have derailed and/or caught fire, posing a significant danger. The ruling can be appealed.
ENTERTAINMENT
Local films at Berlin festival
Three Taiwanese movies have been shortlisted for this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, which takes place from Feb. 13 to Feb. 23. The drama Eel (河鰻) by Chu Chun-teng (朱駿騰) has been nominated for the Perspectives section, the drama Silent Sparks (愛作歹) by Chu Ping (朱平) for the Panorama section, and the satire The Trio Hall (三廳電影) by Su Hui-yu (蘇匯宇) for the Forum section. Tricia Tuttle, director of the festival, said on Tuesday at a press event that 14 feature-length films had made the Perspectives section, which is dedicated to debut films. Notably, five of the productions were directed by women and two of them by nonbinary directors, she said. The new category brings together filmmakers with audacious ideas from around the world and is eclectic in styles and themes, Tuttle said. This year’s edition of Berlinale is set to be the first under the leadership of Tuttle, an American, who became the festival’s director in April last year. Previously she was with the British Film Institute (BFI) overseeing the BFI London Film Festival.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)