Two twin sisters yesterday made a tearful complaint that a short video in which they voluntarily appeared to help their role model, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), with his re-election bid was altered on the Internet and portrayed them as brothel girls.
The twins — Chen Pei-yu (陳珮瑜) and Chen Pei-han (陳珮涵) — who graduated from college this year, said in a press conference held by Hu’s camp last week that they came from Taipei to help Hu’s campaign and that the video, made with friends, was intended to encourage young people to vote for Hu.
In the video, which is available on Hu’s campaign Web site, the twins, accompanied by Hu and other girls, are seen dancing and singing.
The pair claims a version of the clip available on YouTube was altered and portrayed the young women as working as hostesses at a well-known nightclub in Taichung.
In the altered version, footage of the twins is played alongside video of the club and hostesses, with voiceovers claiming the women offer sex services to customers there.
“We are thoroughly humiliated,” the twins said. “Politics are horrible.”
Tang Kuo-tai (唐國泰), a spokesman for Hu’s campaign team, said whoever produced the adulterated version of the video was “evil,” adding that Hu’s campaign office could ask prosecutors to investigate.
Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Wu Tso-yan (吳祚延) also said the altered film on YouTube was humiliating and that prosecutors would look into the matter.
Democratic Progressive Party mayoral candidate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said that while Hu’s camp had initially claimed the twins were volunteers, it was now known that the pair worked for his campaign part-time.
Su said he wondered whether Hu’s camp may not have created the entire incident to attract publicity.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
New Taipei City prosecutors have indicted a cram school teacher in Sinjhuang District (新莊) for allegedly soliciting sexual acts from female students under the age of 18 three times in exchange for cash payments. The man, surnamed Su (蘇), committed two offenses in 2023 and one last year, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. The office in recent days indicted Su for contraventions of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), which prohibits "engaging in sexual intercourse or lewd acts with a minor over the age of 16, but under the age of 18 in exchange for
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS