President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) nomination of Control Yuan members on Thursday drew more negative reaction from the opposition and other critics yesterday, with one pundit saying that Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) had been involved in the “politically motivated” nomination process.
Wang Mei-yu (王美玉), former president of the Chinese-language China Times, made the list of 29 nominees because of Wu, who could have a personal reason for his endorsement, radio host Clara Chou (周玉蔻) wrote in her column published yesterday on my-formosa.com, an online news Web site.
Wu, a reporter at the China Times before entering politics, was a close friend of Want Want China Times Groups chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), who owns several media outlets, including the China Time, magazines, television companies and online news Web sites, Chou said.
Recommending Wang, who is Tsai’s right-hand man, could benefit Wu media-wise and give him a boost in his competition with other potential 2016 presidential aspirants, including New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential primary next year, Chou said.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said the Control Yuan nominations were “horrible” and appeared to be Ma’s way of rewarding his confidants — given that most of the nominees are controversial figures or former government officials with bad reputations.
“It seemed to us that Ma could care less about what other people think, because his term will be up in two years,” DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) told a press conference in Taipei.
As an example of a problematic nominee, Lin cited former Food and Drug Administration director-general Kang Jaw-jou (康照洲), who was accused of covering up cases of starch products contaminated with maleic acid during a nationwide scandal in May last year.
Former Council of Indigenous Peoples minister Chang Jen-hsiang (章仁香), former KMT lawmaker Chiang Yi-wen (江綺雯), former Public Construction Commission minister Fan Liang-shiow (范良銹) and former Council for Economic Planning and Development deputy minister Nancy Chen (陳小紅) were all Ma’s subordinates, Lin said.
Chang’s performance at the Council of Indigenous Peoples had been criticized by other KMT lawmakers, while Fan was also accused of malfeasance when he served as director of the Central Emergency Operation Center during Typhoon Morakot, which left 677 dead, 22 missing and caused more than NT$100 billion (US$3.3 billion at current exchange rates) in damages in August 2009.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
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