A recent government announcement that Greater Tainan will be added to the list of cities offering direct flights to China led to an angry exchange of words yesterday between President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign aides and Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德).
Lai said the introduction of direct flights should not be politicized and that Ma’s campaign aides had “gone overboard” by accusing him of flip-flopping on the issue.
Lai was responding to Ma campaign office spokesman Yin Wei’s (殷瑋) accusation that Lai has wavered on the issue — one minute calling it a “trojan horse” offered by China and the next saying he would cooperate with the central government to pursue the policy.
Lai said yesterday that the introduction of direct flights between Tainan Airport and China was an issue of livelihood for Tainan residents and not a political issue.
He said that without regular flights linking Tainan and major Chinese cities, no benefits would be brought to his city.
“I was just reflecting local opinion when I asked the central government to increase the number of direct flights between Tainan and China,” Lai said.
However, Yin said that last year, Lai had actually been hoping to move the city’s airport, but now he is asking the central government to allow regular flights from the airport.
“Isn’t he politicizing the issue at the expense of local public opinion?” Yin asked.
Lee Chia-fei (李佳霏), a spokeswoman for the president’s campaign office, said that if Lai wanted regular direct flights to China from Tainan Airport, he should work hard to attract visitors to his city.
“At the very least, he could learn from Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬), all of whom have visited China to promote their cities or counties,” Lee said.
In response, Lai said even if Ma’s officials do not like what he said, “the response should have come from the Executive Yuan, not Ma’s campaign office.”
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
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
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
RSS