Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors yesterday condemned Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) for taking six weeks’ leave to visit the US as an Eisenhower Fellow.
The councilors were also enraged that Lien’s country designation on the organization’s official Web site was listed as “Taipei, China (Taiwan).”
Lien was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship in this year’s multinational program and began six weeks of leave on Monday for the short-term study program in the US.
DPP Taipei City councilors Lee Chien-chang (李建昌), Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) and Huang Hsiang-chun (黃向群) challenged Lien over the name on the Web site.
Huang urged Lien not to neglect public affairs or disregard the interests of EasyCard users because of personal reasons.
Lien, who is currently in the US, issued a statement saying that he had raised the national title issue with the fellowship in February.
Lien enclosed an e-mail he had sent to the fellowship’s multinational program officer, Greg Forman, on Feb. 23. In the e-mail, Lien asked the fellowship to change the title “China (Taiwan) to “Taiwan, the ROC.”
According to Forman’s reply, the fellowship adopted the title “Taipei, China (Taiwan)” in the 1990s after board member and former US president George H.W. Bush invited China to join, Lien said.
All of Taiwan’s award recipients, including former DPP legislator Julian Kuo (郭正亮), have attended activities held by the fellowships under the name of “Taipei, China (Taiwan),” he said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A court has approved Kaohsiung prosecutors’ request that two people working for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Dai-hua (林岱樺) be detained, as a probe into two cases allegedly involving her continues. The request was made on Friday, after prosecutors raided Lin’s two offices and the staffers’ residences, and questioned five on suspicion of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪汙治罪條例). The people included the directors of Lin’s Daliao (大寮) and Linyuan (林園) district offices in Kaohsiung, surnamed Chou (周) and Lin (林) respectively, as well as three other staffers. The prosecutors’ move came after they interrogated Lin Dai-hua on Wednesday. She appeared solemn following