Taipei City Government allegations of illegal profiteering are “cooked-up charges” based on a “strained interpretation” of the facts, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said at a news conference yesterday.
Ma questioned the methods of the city’s Clean Government Committee, which has said that Ma, while Taipei mayor, agreed to Taipei Dome contract terms allowing Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) to rake in illegal profits.
“I feel [the committee] first came to a conclusion and then looked for evidence,” Ma said, adding that people related to the case would demonstrate that there had been no illegal activity in each instance cited by the city.
Ma also responded to remarks made by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Sunday challenging Ma to account for an alleged difference between his “real” and nominal campaign financing.
“There was absolutely nothing of this kind,” Ma said.
Ma also said that some of Ko’s comments demonstrate that Ko himself viewed some of the actions of the Clean Government Committee as inappropriate.
At a conference on the capital’s build-operate-transfer projects, Ko said that five projects being investigated should be referred to as “major cases” instead of as “major corruption cases.”
Ko yesterday said he would handle the case as soon as the city’s Department of Government Ethics sent him documents for approval.
He added the he could not stand the “nitpicking” over his wording in referring to city investigations.
“I do not see any difference between ‘five major cases,’ ‘five corruption cases,’ and ‘five strange cases,’” Ko said, comparing analysis of his word choice to the exegesis of ancient Chinese texts.
Meanwhile, former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), said on Facebook Ko that should “find his conscience,” adding that Ko had chosen to “pick fights” to raise his stature.
Ko said Hau was “irritable,” and denied making malicious remarks about the former mayor.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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