Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus whip Alex Fai (費鴻泰) yesterday confirmed the existence of a “PK team” that had reportedly been set up at the order of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to have KMT lawmakers help the party’s campaign efforts for the nine-in-one elections.
Fai, who questioned National Audit Office Auditor-General, Lin Ching-long (林慶隆), on Thursday on the MG149 account controversy that involves independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and threatened to shelve the agency’s budget, said yesterday that the PK team is not aimed at Ko.
“PK” stands for “player killer” and is an online gaming term for players who hunt rivals’ virtual characters to kill them, rather than collaborate with others to solve missions or try to defeat non-player characters in a game.
The term colloquially refers to any one-on-one showdown. Some sources said the term could refer to “penalty kick,” a soccer term.
“The PK team is established by the party caucus whenever there are major events or decisions to be made, and the team collects relevant information and reports it to the public. The mechanism has been in operation for years,” Fai said.
He said he sent out requests to KMT legislators more than a month ago seeking those interested in joining it.
“It is not targeting MG149, which is a small case,” Fai said, adding that the team is also for investigating recent issues such as the tainted cooking oil scandal and the Greater Kaohsiung gas pipeline explosions.
KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), who ignited the MG149 dispute early last month by accusing Ko of corruption via the shared MG149 bank account — a public account for National Taiwan University Hospital’s (NTUH) surgical intensive care unit — while serving as its head, said she was glad “that the party caucus has finally realized that MG149 is problematic.”
“At first, only I saw the problem, but now the fact is gradually unveiling itself. With the party caucus [involved], we can make Taipei residents understand that the MG149 account is truly flawed,” Lo said.
To Ko’s call for the KMT not to attack NTUH and national medical research for political purposes, Lo said, “You asked people not to attack it, but you are hurting the institution; do not drag NTUH into this.”
“I suggest that Ko does not hurt NTUH’s academic spirit through his illegal actions,” she added.
Lo said she would attend the legislature’s committee meeting next week, which requires NTUH superintendent Huang Guan-tarn (黃冠棠) to attend, to question him.
Additional reporting by Sean Lin
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to