People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday said he would like to cooperate with independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to establish a “league of practical democracy,” but Ko responded by joking about the idea.
Ko attended the PFP’s two-day youth summer camp as a lecturer yesterday morning, talking about his life experience and political ideals with young people.
Soong praised Ko for leading the Taipei City Government in presenting a successful Taipei Summer Universiade last month.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
He also presented Ko with a phrase he rewrote from a piece by calligraphy master Yu You-ren (于右任) and encouraged the mayor to be patient, keep his temper when angry and deal with difficulties calmly.
Ko said in his lecture that the most meaningful aspect of organizing the Universiade was to help Taiwanese regain confidence.
He encouraged young people to travel the country to really get to see and understand the nation.
“If you want to work according to the one fixed day off and one flexible rest day policy, you will never be great,” Ko said, referring to the government’s labor policy that was promulgated in January, but has drawn criticism from the public.
Ko said his younger brother once complained about “working eight hours a day, but still not getting things done.”
Ko said he told him: “You have to work very hard. I have never worked less than eight hours since I started at National Taiwan University Hospital.”
“To maintain my status as one of the world’s top experts in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, I had to read for five or six hours a day, and spend long hours instructing students and treating patients, which meant I was almost always working more than 10 hours a day,” said Ko, who was director of the hospital’s Department of Traumatology before being elected Taipei mayor in 2014.
Ko said that to succeed, young people should be diligent and persistent in pursuing their goals.
Soong also criticized the labor policy.
“Can the policy work when different vocations are asked to meet the same standard?” he asked.
“I’m not saying that no rest should be the norm, but if people are just clocking in and clocking out, they should not complain about their salaries,” Soong said.
Soong answered questions about rumors that the PFP intends to cooperate with Ko.
“We want to cooperate with Mayor Ko and with people of all political parties to establish a league of practical democracy,” he said.
Ko said jokingly: “I see it more as an afternoon tea league, where people with different views can sit down and discuss issues with each other.”
“Political parties do not need to fight to the death and people with different opinions should be able to work together,” he said, adding that Taiwan is a democratic, free, diverse and open society.
That diversity means people can cooperate while also criticizing each other, Ko said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS