Taichung City Mayor and former foreign minister Jason Hu (
"Hu was shocked by the campaign literature and said that it was not a good way of doing things," said Huang Wen-ming (
However, KMT officials also said that Hu, the director general of the pan-blue campaign headquarters in Taichung, did not take any action to stop the circulation of the poster or prevent future campaign literature from using similar material.
"The poster was only distributed once, mostly as newspaper inserts. Hu never asked the campaign headquarters to put a halt on distribution or to recall the posters that had already been given out," said Chen Ching-fu (
Featuring pictures of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, al-Qaeda terror figurehead Osama bin Laden and the destruction of one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City, the campaign poster warns the public against voting for President Chen Shui-bian (
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (
"Chen has spent his life fighting for democracy. To call him a dictator or terrorist is an insult. It is an insult not just to Chen, but to all those who support democracy," Hsiao said.
"The use of images from an atrocity on the poster is highly inappropriate and is culturally insensitive," she said, adding that Hu had previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
GUGGENHEIM
Meanwhile, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, with whom Hu has been in difficult negotiations for months over establishing a satellite museum in Taichung, said yesterday through press officer Jennifer Russo that it would not comment on Hu or the KMT-People First Party alliance using images of the destruction of the Twin Towers or Adolf Hitler.
Hu must still secure a significant proportion of funds from the central government for the museum project to proceed.
On Thursday, the Taipei Times contacted several representative offices for their response to the endorsement of the "terrorism" poster by the former foreign minister.
David Miller, an assistant information officer from the American Institute in Taiwan, declined to comment on the content of the poster, saying that it was an "internal affair."
Maggie Yeh (
The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US killed 68 British nationals.
Howard Lin (
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by