Opinions were mixed yesterday over the kneeling in public of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
First Soong knelt with his wife at a rally in Taichung. Shortly after Lien and his wife prostrated themselves at a rally in Taipei.
It was the third time Soong has knelt in public, while it was Lien's first performance. Lien, however, stole the show.
"It is a very touching scene," KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) said. Chen who participated in the rally said he had not known about the act beforehand, and only saw it on TV afterwards.
Emile Sheng (盛治仁), an associate professor of political science at Soochow University, said that the kneeling might be positive for the pan-blue camp, and was the most important moment in the rally.
"If the kneeling today was just Soong again it might have had a negative effect. But this time Lien and Soong both knelt down to kiss the earth, and the meaning becomes different," Sheng said.
"Lien and Soong's show of their love for Taiwan is not less than the pan-green camp supporters', and counters the pan-green camp's appeal in the `228 Hand-in-hand rally.' I believe the act was pre-planned, and that they may have moved pan-blue supporters."
Meanwhile Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), a political analyst and an assistant fellow of politics at Academia Sinica, thought that Lien's kneeling was, in fact, impromptu damage control.
"If it had only been Soong who knelt, then it would have brought negative effects. But Lien's prostrating himself made Soong's act not so prominent," he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians showed contempt for the pan-blue ticket's double act.
"Soong kneeling before Lien showed again that he was trying to capture the limelight, to obtain more political clout in preparation for a post-election power struggle," DPP campaign spokesman Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) said.
"He has been trying to obtain more power even before the election takes place, and this kind of act cannot get the voters' trust," he said.
Soong's first public kneeling happened on Dec. 5, 2002 during the Taipei mayoral election campaign. He knelt down at a campaign rally in Taipei's Ta-an Forest Park in the evening, asking the voters to give Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) a second term.
He knelt again about one year later, on Nov. 9, 2003, when he visited Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Jung-wei (
Soong got emotional and knelt down after he talked with Chang about a water-resources budget cut by the central government.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS