Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung’s (劉政鴻) comments during a ceremony with Chinese officials from Jiangxi Province to finalize a deal on academic, cultural and agricultural interaction have been slammed by netizens and Academia Sinica researcher Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) as “disgraceful” and pandering to the Chinese delegation.
Liu said he had been “worried Typhoon Matmo would affect the ceremony, and could not sleep from worry over potential damage from the storm, but thanks to the presence of [Chinese Communist Party chief of Jiangxi Province] Qiang Wei (強衛) and his entourage we have seen minimal wind and rain.”
Huang lashed out on Facebook over Liu’s comments.
Photo: Fu Chao-piao, Taipei Times
“It is not surprising to see two thugs [of] Human Rights [abuse] enjoying each other’s company,” Huang wrote.
Numerous netizens also lambasted Liu’s comments and called them “disgusting.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers also criticized Liu’s comments, a report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily said.
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said she felt “quite uncomfortable” reading the comments, adding that the typhoon causing minimal damage was a blessing for Taiwanese and had nothing to do with the Jiangxi officials.
DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said there was no reason to flatter Chinese officials to such a degree.
Meanwhile, Falun Gong members gathered outside the restaurant in protest against Beijing.
Members said Qiang had been part of the oppression the Chinese government had launched against the organization during former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s (江澤民) time in office.
The Falun Gong members said they would continue to spread their ideals and called on Qiang to convey to Beijing their appeals to cease oppression of the movement in China.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
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