Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Kaohsiung City Councilor Lee Chiao-ju (李喬如) came under fire — from inside and outside the party — yesterday for her proposal to evaluate public servants on their marital status and parenthood, as well as banning those who are older than 30 years of age from running for public office if they are unmarried and childless.
According to the councilor’s proposal, a public servant older than 30 who is unmarried and childless would receive a “C” on his or her annual performance evaluation, someone with two children would receive a “B”, while those with three children would be given an “A.”
In addition, she suggested that single men or women older than 30 should be banned from running for public office.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Lee made the suggestion to Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) during a city council meeting on Thursday, saying that her proposal would help to raise the birth rate and she asked Chen to refer her suggestion to the central government.
Fertility, the measure of the average number of children per female during her lifetime, dropped to 0.895 in 2010. That figure rebounded to 1.06 last year, but still fell well below the global average of 2.5.
Chen, a long-time human rights activist and a founding member of the DPP, who is unmarried, rejected Lee’s suggestion immediately.
“As mayor, it is my responsibility to encourage marriage and childbirth, but everyone has the right to decide what they want to do with their life,” Chen said. “There’s no country in the world that can tell people what to do [on marriage and parenthood] — everyone’s rights must be respected.”
“As mayor, I have no right to ask my employees to get married at a certain age, either,” she added.
Speaking to the press later yesterday, Lee insisted her proposal was appropriate.
“Those with such selfish ideas as not wanting to get married and not wanting to have children should shoulder some social responsibility,” she said. “A low birth rate could lead to slower economic development, an outflow of job opportunities and it could have a huge impact on many industries.”
Lee’s proposal was not only rejected by Chen, it drew criticism from legislators across party lines.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” said 37-year-old DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), who is unmarried. “Please stop this nonsense, this is not what you do to encourage people to have children.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), 59, who is also unmarried, said Lee’s proposal was ridiculous.
“This is ridiculous,” Lo said. “Should a government employee who sits around doing nothing get an ‘A’ in their annual performance evaluation just because they have three children?”
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
RSS