Chinese tycoon and philanthropist Chen Guangbiao (陳光標) arrived in Taiwan last night to begin a controversial “thanksgiving” tour that will see him hand over hundreds of millions of NT dollars.
Chen and a 47-member delegation are set to visit Taipei, and Hsinchu, Nantou and Hualien counties over the next six days, with pledges to give out an estimated NT$500 million (US$17.2 million) to impoverished Taiwanese.
New Taipei City (新北市) and Taoyuan County rejected conditions for the handouts, which reportedly include busing recipients to municipal offices to thank Chen personally for the gifts.
There was no indication that any Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-governed municipalities were contacted as part of the trip, which has been labeled by the DPP as having a political agenda.
Chen, who made his fortune by recycling construction materials, is no stranger to controversy.
He has called his trip a response to the goodwill shown by Taiwanese during earthquakes in China over the past two years.
His glitzy ways have, however, been called “over the top” by municipal officials anxious to avoid a repeat of an appearance in Nanjing last week where he made 15 million yuan (US$2.28 million) into a “cash wall” before giving it away.
On a call-in program on TVBS News on Tuesday night, the 42-year-old caused anger when he said he hoped critics of his visit would “go and learn some Marxist ideas.”
Local media reported that, Chen, ranked No. 223 on Forbes’ list of richest Chinese, plans to hand out 50,000 red envelopes, each containing NT$10,000 in cash. Some of the money was also contributed by other leading Chinese industrialists.
Mixed information from city and county governments has suggested that Chen originally expected recipients to be bused to municipal offices where he could hand over the money personally.
He will, however, allow the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China to accept his NT$3 million donation in Hualien County, after Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁) said there was no way to choose between 3,000 disadvantaged households.
Hsinchu County Government’s education bureau will receive a check on behalf of the recipients, while Nantou County Government will comply with Chen’s request to bus recipients to county offices. In Taipei, Chen will hold a dinner at the Grand Hotel where he plans to hand out money to 600 people.
His plans have drawn concerns that he has failed to consider recipients’ rights to respect and privacy. Critics have also said there is no way to fairly decide who should get money.
Some non-profit organizations have also said donations should be handled through social welfare groups better equipped to deal with disadvantaged people.
Politicians, meanwhile, said they hoped to see the entire matter handled in a more “low-profile” manner.
DPP lawmakers said Chen was in Taiwan for more than simply business and charity work.
“I want to remind the Taiwanese people that Chen is only in Taiwan to help Beijing engage in its unification efforts,” said DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), apparently referring to Chen’s “Marxist” comments and the text embossed on his red envelopes, which says “the Chinese race is one family (中華民族一家親).”
Chen is due to make donations in Hsinchu County tomorrow, Nantou County and Taipei on Saturday and Hualien County on Sunday. He is also expected to visit the Taipei Flora Expo the day before his departure on Tuesday.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS