The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate for Taipei mayor, Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), yesterday apologized for remarks made on Monday that have been seen as discriminatory about single men who live alone, saying that he only meant to encourage government agencies to use big data in fighting crime.
“Regarding my comments yesterday, which some people felt constituted labeling and stereotyping and have angered certain groups of people, I hereby solemnly offer my apology,” the former lawmaker said at a news conference at the party’s Taipei headquarters.
He said he just wanted to help strengthen the nation’s safety net for women and young children through the analysis of scientific statistics and the data he cited were from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Photo: CNA
Ting on Monday told a news conference that big data analysis showed that there were six traits that indicated a person was more likely to become a child abuser or murderer: being male, unmarried, unemployed, living alone, lacking intimate partners or having a poor relationship with others.
“These men are society’s tickling time bombs and should be subject to preventive supervision,” he said.
New Power Party Taipei city councilor candidate Wu Cheng (吳崢) said Ting needed to apologize for carelessly labeling people as a potential criminal simply because they are single or unemployed.
Ting yesterday announced 10 policy proposals aimed at helping women and children, including a NT$50,000 subsidy for new mothers’ postpartum care.
The city should increase the number of babysitters who provide in-home care and also improve the quality of their service, he said.
A day should be designated each month as a parent-child day to encourage quality family time, with parents and children given free access to Taipei’s MRT metropolitan railway system and public facilities for the entire day, he said.
If he wins, he would also seek to help women start micro-businesses as a way to increase the number of women in the workforce, he said.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant