The Central Election Commission yesterday ruled that a DPP TV advertisement would "confuse the voters' views of opposition candidates."
The DPP had submitted the ad to the commission for review before airing it from next Monday. The commission said the ad included misrepresentation that would be a violation of the broadcasting law and ordered the party to cut out those parts which named legislators it says were responsible for cutting budgets in the Legislative Yuan.
The DPP has, however, refused to make the cuts, claiming that it had not been informed of the ruling.
"There's no way we will cut those seconds," Hsu Yang-ming (許陽明), the party's deputy secretary general, told reporters yesterday afternoon. "The party has in no way confused the views of any voters" on opposition candidates, he said.
In previous TV spots, the party had accused 17 opposition lawmakers of being "barbaric budget-cutters" -- attracting heavy criticism from those accused.
The commission said yesterday that the party's ads were inappropriate and indulged in rumor-mongering.
In response, Hsu flatly rejected the commission's finding and insisted that nothing would be cut from the ad.
Hsu also unveiled the DPP's new newspaper advertisement yesterday, which attacked the way in which the KMT acquired its assets.
The ad argues, "The KMT is worse than to the Communist Party of East Germany," saying the KMT had staunchly resisted any political reform within the party.
Hsu said that, unlike the former East German communist party which embraced a fair investigation into its party assets, the KMT has been rejecting the Control Yuan's attempts to establish an independent board to look into whether the party has made any illegal gains during its past rule.
Hsu said that the KMT owned assets worth as much as NT$85 billion.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent