President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should rein in Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members who are spreading racist and gender-biased propaganda in a bid to snatch votes for the year-end local elections and support for a controversial trade pact with China, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
Acting DPP Spokesman Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said at a press conference that the KMT’s Chiayi County branch has been running a “questionable, negative advertisement” insinuating that the DPP nominee in the county commissioner’s race, Chang Hwa-kuan (張花冠), was involved in adulterous relations with the current commissioner, Chen Ming-wen (陳明文).
The ad, which appeared in major Chinese-language newspapers on Thursday, compared the DPP’s decision to nominate Chang, a legislator, to a popular soap opera plot line by saying the party resorted to the “second wife” strategy to secure the seat.
Chang, 55, is the widow of late KMT legislator and prominent businessman Tseng Chen-nung (曾振農). At the announcement of Chang’s nomination, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) praised her for making the transition from the wife of a businessman to a politician.
Both Chen and Chang said yesterday they were prepared to sue their pan-blue rivals for defamation.
“It is regrettable that the KMT has stooped so low this early in the race. But this will not stand in my way of winning the seat,” Chang said.
Calling the KMT’s ad part of a smear campaign, Chao yesterday urged Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, to stop his party members using “low-class” and discriminatory tactics in the battle for the commissionership.
Chao said that during Ma’s presidential campaign, his supporters had also published several profanely worded ads in publications around the country.
During the presidential campaign of 2007, Ma’s supporters in Kaohsiung draped a giant banner on the side of a building bearing a phrase that used Ma’s last name in an allusion to a swear word. A pan-blue underground radio station at that time also started its show with a jingle making use of what sounded like an obscene phrase.
“Now, as the president, he has allowed the Ministry of Economic Affairs to distribute racist propaganda to boost support for the economic cooperation framework agreement [ECFA] that it wants to sign with Beijing. It is difficult not to suspect that these are all mere reflections of Ma’s real sentiments,” he said.
Chao was referring to a comic strip that the ministry had created to promote the ECFA. The cartoon features two stereotypical characters, Yi-ge (一哥), an ethnic Taiwanese vocational school graduate who opposes the ECFA, and Fa-sao (發嫂), a sharp-minded Hakka career woman who supports the deal.
The DPP last month expressed outrage at the cartoon and demanded that the ministry withdraw it.
Although the ministry has insisted there was nothing wrong with the cartoon and refused to remove it from its Web site, the ministry yesterday released a statement that said it had decided to pull the cartoon.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by