Taipei County Government yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Chinese-language China Times Weekly magazine over an article that said county Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) intended to spend NT$200 million (US$6.5 million) in public funds remodeling his official residence. It is seeking NT$200 million in compensation.
At a press conference, the county government’s Information Office Director-General Hsieh Hsiu-chi (謝秀棋) dismissed the magazine’s story.
Hsieh said the county government had previously proposed the reconstruction of a building at the original location of the residence in cooperation with the private sector.
The county government would acquire certain parts of the building after construction was complete, according to the plan.
However, the plan had not been finalized.
Hsieh said Chou did not move into the 40-year-old residence after he assumed office because Chou wanted to prevent the county government from having to spend several tens of thousands of dollars renovating the residence every year.
“He didn’t understand why the magazine made the allegation. He was very angry,” she said.
The county government will donate the compensation to charity groups in the county if it wins the lawsuit, Hsieh said.
During a question-and-answer session, Chou told Taipei County Councilor Chen Ming-yi (陳明義) that he despised the magazine for insulting him.
Chou said he never wanted to rebuild his residence at the cost of NT$200 million.
He said the Taipei County Council would not have agreed as it was in financial difficulties.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back