Lawmakers across party lines fell over themselves yesterday to comment on the departure of the president's son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), for the US on Friday -- continuing a recent trend to hold the private activities of the first family accountable to the legislature.
Noting the deterioration in the health of Chen's mother, first lady Wu Shu-jen (
Wu was in court on Friday morning for the "state affairs fund" case. She faces prosecution along with three presidential aides.
Chen's departure for the US might prove that KMT Legislator Chiu Yi's (邱毅) previous charges against him were correct, said Chou, referring to Chiu's earlier accusation that he was in the process of applying for US residence.
Chou said he suspected Chen went to the US to take care of follow-up procedures for his immigration application or to finalize an alleged real estate investment.
Chiu yesterday claimed Chen went to the US to dodge prosecutors' possible interrogation of him over alleged perjury in the "state affairs fund" case.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Kuo-ching (
Chen's wife Huang Jui-ching (
"Just like [Taichung Mayor Jason Hu's (
"We didn't have to come back so early because [there was still time] before I was due to have the baby, but the media made us come back in a hurry, so now he has to go back to take care of some things," Huang said.
The couple returned to Taiwan before the mayoral election on Dec. 9 amid wrangling between the pan-blue and pan-green camps on whether Huang would give birth to the president's grandchild in the US and make the president break his promise of not becoming a "grandfather of an American."
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
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final