Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and his wife, Lee Chia-fen (李佳芬), should demonstrate class and decorum when speaking in public, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials said yesterday, while a Kaohsiung city councilor accused Lee of making baseless claims.
At an event in Pingtung County on Monday, Lee expressed concern about gender equality education, citing a friend as saying that course materials for third and sixth-graders contained references to anal sex and orgasms respectively.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is seeking re-election, yesterday said that Han, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate in next year’s presidential election, and his wife should not be vulgar and base their statements on facts.
Photo: CNA
Vulgarity is a theme with Han and Lee, who should discontinue its use, Tsai said.
The Ministry of Education also issued a statement disputing Lee’s comments.
Meanwhile, New Power Party Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Chieh (黃捷) called Han and Lee the source of “public chaos,” saying that they have become accustomed to making comments without fact-checking.
Huang said that she went through the course materials and could not find the information that Lee claimed they contained.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that Lee was “irresponsible” and spreading false information.
Su also said that Han’s description of Tsai running with former premier William Lai (賴清德) as her vice presidential candidate was inappropriate.
Han on Monday compared a possible Tsai-Lai ticket to characters from Chinese-language literary classic Water Margin (水滸傳): the dwarf Wu Dalang (武大郎) and his wife, Pan Jinlian (潘金蓮).
Han’s description — “Pan and Wu under the blanket; their heads lie on the same pillow, but their feet match not” — refered to the appearance of harmony, but possible internal strife.
The DPP knows well the “essence of democracy” and that its members would always stand united, despite fierce internal competition, Su said, referring to a bruising presidential primary between Tsai and Lai in June.
Han should be more concerned about infighting in his own party, rather than insinuate disunity in the DPP with improper metaphors, Su said.
Separately yesterday, a source said on condition of anonymity that Han was making improper statements to obfuscate a property deal.
Han’s image as an “everyman” has been challenged after media reports that he purchased a presale luxury apartment in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) in 2011 for NT$70 million (US$2.3 million at the current exchange rate).
Han reportedly sold the apartment in 2015 at a loss of about 3.5 percent.
Han, Lee and KMT Tainan City Councilor Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) equating vulgarity with being regular folk is a sign that they look down on everyday people, the source said.
Additional reporting by Chen Wen-chan and Su Yung-yao
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
MILITARY EXERCISES: China is expected to conduct more drills in the region after President William Lai’s office announced he would stopover in Hawaii and Guam China is likely to launch military drills in the coming days near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming trip to the Pacific and scheduled US transit as a pretext, regional security officials said. Lai is to begin a visit to Taipei’s three diplomatic allies in the Pacific on Saturday, and sources told Reuters he was planning stops in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam in a sensitive trip shortly after the US presidential election. Lai’s office has yet to confirm details of what are officially “stop-overs” in the US, but is expected to do so shortly before he departs, sources
Tasa Meng Corp (采盟), which runs Taiwan Duty Free, could be fined up to NT$1 million (US$30,737) after the owner and employees took center stage in a photograph with government officials and the returning Premier12 baseball champions at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Monday evening. When Taiwan’s national baseball team arrived home fresh from their World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 championship victory in Tokyo, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) was at the airport with Chinese Professional Baseball League commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) to welcome back the team. However, after Hsiao and Tsai took a photograph with the team, Tasa Meng chairwoman Ku
RSS