President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was touring a night market in Kaohsiung late on Saturday night when he was confronted by about a dozen angry protesters. A man was whisked away by Ma’s security detail after he tossed a bottle of white paint that barely missed the president.
Ma spent the night in the city after he was reinstated to the post of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman earlier in the day.
While touring the night market, he was heckled by protesters who called him a “liar” and an “economy killer.” The protesters accused him of being too soft on Beijing and said that he was there merely to “put on a show.”
He then came under attack when the protester tossed the bottle of white paint.
Unfazed by the protests, Ma enjoyed some papaya milk and waved to the crowds at the night market.
Chinese tourists began cutting Kaohsiung from their travel itineraries after the Dalai Lama visited southern Taiwan early last month in the wake of Typhoon Morakot and the Kaohsiung Film Festival decided to screen a documentary about Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Fan Liqing (范麗青) said on Wednesday that it was “natural” for Chinese tourists to express their displeasure, because there were “forces in Kaohsiung who align themselves with the separatist forces supporting Tibetan and Uighur independence, which creates trouble and runs counter to the core interests of China.”
“It hurts the feelings of their mainland compatriots,” she said, marking the first time Beijing confirmed its tourists were boycotting Kaohsiung.
Ma spent Saturday evening shopping at the night market, touring a commercial district and visiting a department store in an apparent bid to help promote tourism in Kaohsiung.
Ma, however, did not make any comment about Fan’s remarks.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AP
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday vowed to investigate claims made in a YouTube video about China’s efforts to politically influence young Taiwanese and encourage them to apply for Chinese ID cards. The council’s comments follow Saturday’s release of a video by Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) and YouTuber “Pa Chiung (八炯)” on China’s “united front” tactics. It is the second video on the subject the pair have released this month. In the video, Chen visits the Taiwan Youth Entrepreneurship Park in Quanzhou in China’s Fujian Province and the Strait Herald news platform in Xiamen, China. The Strait Herald — owned by newspaper
NEW YEAR’S ADDRESS: ‘No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path,’ William Lai said, urging progress ‘without looking back’ President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday urged parties across the political divide to democratically resolve conflicts that have plagued domestic politics within Taiwan’s constitutional system. In his first New Year’s Day address since becoming president on May 20 last year, Lai touched on several issues, including economic and security challenges, but a key emphasis was on the partisan wrangling that has characterized his first seven months in office. Taiwan has transformed from authoritarianism into today’s democracy and that democracy is the future, Lai said. “No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path for Taiwan,” he said. “The only choice
CORRUPTION: Twelve other people were convicted on charges related to giving illegal benefits, forgery and money laundering, with sentences ranging from one to five years The Yilan District Court yesterday found Yilan County Commissioner Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙) guilty of corruption, sentencing her to 12 years and six months in prison. The Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office in 2022 indicted 10 government officials and five private individuals, including Lin, her daughter and a landowner. Lin was accused of giving illegal favors estimated to be worth NT$2.4 million (US$73,213) in exchange for using a property to conduct activities linked to the 2020 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential and legislative election campaigns. Those favors included exempting some property and construction firms from land taxes and building code contraventions that would have required
RSS