Several DPP Taipei City councilors urged Bureau of Health Director Chiu Shu-ti (
"Now that Twu has resigned, shouldn't [Chiu] resign?" DPP Councilor Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) demanded yesterday during a council session.
In response to Wang's questioning, Chiu said that she had already offered her written resignation to the mayor last week.
Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in support of Chiu, said, "I declined to accept Chiu's resignation because we are still struggling to gain control of SARS. It is simply not the right time for her to go."
Other DPP councilors raised similar questions.
DPP councilor Yen Sheng-kuan (
Ma said he did not know whether hospital outbreaks were going to happen again, and it was not the right time to change officials. "Otherwise, it could affect the morale of the SARS fighters," Ma said.
Although Ma was insistent on keeping Chiu, both he and Chiu offered their public apologies during the council meeting.
"I am sorry that the Taipei City Government could not control the epidemic immediately," Ma said.
Ma and Chiu also bowed to the councilors, as a gesture of apology to Taipei's citizens.
The gesture of remorse did not seem to impress the councilors. Some attacked Ma himself, instead of focusing on Chiu.
Wang told Ma, "All evidence so far has pointed towards Wu having been responsible for what happened in [Taipei Municipal} Hoping Hospital. Why did you decide to send him to Hoping when he was on trial for corruption in a purchase scandal?"
Ma replied by saying, "The trial was closed and Wu was proven innocent before he was made the Hoping superintendent."
Wang insisted that the trial was still ongoing.
DPP councilors also voiced their opposition to a plan for having Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital focus on SARS treatment.
"If Hoping is going to have its equipment upgraded to care for more SARS patients, then other municipal hospitals should follow Hoping's example," New Party Councilor Chen I-chou (陳義洲) said.
"Why should Hoping take in more SARS patients than than other hospitals? Hoping is too close to the local residents, and the area around Hoping is densely populated. Is it really suitable for Hoping to take in so many SARS patients?" Chen demanded.
Ma answered that, "It would be nice if we could have a hospital big enough to contain all the SARS patients in one place, as they do in Singapore. "But Taipei simply cannot do this, due to a lack of resources," he said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS