The Democratic Progressive Party yesterday accused Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) of violating the law by campaigning for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taichung Mayor Jason Hu’s (胡志強) re-election during a government conference.
The council held a conference on Saturday in Taichung County to discuss the establishment of a woodcarving and forestry cultural park in the county.
Chen and Hu co-chaired the conference.
Hu said he fully supported the council’s proposal to establish a cultural park, adding that the government body should inject more money into the project to create a world-class cultural park.
Saying Hu always sought to have great parks or museums built in Taichung, Chen then pointed a finger at the mayor and said: “He must win the [Nov. 27 special municipalities] election. If he does not …”
At which point Hu cut in, singing: “Double, double the budget” with some participants in the room.
DPP spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), who also serves as a spokesman for DPP Taichung mayoral candidate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), said Chen’s remarks violated the principle of impartiality for government officials and may also have violated regulations on vote-buying, because he hinted that if Hu did not win, the council could decide not to grant the budget for the proposed park.
Asked for comment, Chen denied using the conference to campaign for the KMT’s candidate, saying he was only talking about building the cultural park and budget matters associated with the project.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents