Fri, Mar 29, 2019 page3

• Ko defends spokeswoman’s ‘fake issue’ comment

  ‘AGEIST DEFENSE’: A city councilor criticized Ko for his comment that Huang Ching-ying, as someone younger than 30, cannot be expected to say a lot in a short time

  • By Shen Pei-yao, Kuo An-chia and Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporters, with staff writer
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  Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday defended Taipei City Government deputy spokeswoman Huang Ching-ying’s (黃?瑩) assertion that the unification-independence question is a “fake issue.”

  On Tuesday’s episode of Era News’ political talk show Era Money (年代向錢看), Huang said that she did not understand the fuss over the debate.

  The topic re-emerges every two years with the election cycle, but her vote today does not decide whether Taiwan immediately becomes unified with China or independent, she said.

  

  Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, second right, walks with Taipei City Government deputy spokeswoman Huang Ching-ying, second left, in Taipei City Hall yesterday.

  Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

  Huang meant that in the context of the US-China rivalry, the US would not allow Taiwan to either declare independence from or unify with China, Ko said outside the mayor’s office.

  However, there are still people who want to destroy that balance, he added.

  In a situation in which the overall strategy has not changed, Taiwan needs to remain cautious at all times against “petty actions” that attempt to destroy the balance, he said.

  Asked whether he thought Huang was not eloquent enough, Ko said: “She is not yet 30 years old. How can you expect a relatively young person to say a lot in a very short period of time?”

  Sunflower movement leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) on Wednesday responded to Huang’s comments on Facebook.

  It is unnecessary to argue over whether the question over unification or independence is fake, Lin said, adding that people only need to ask: “Is Taiwan, as an independent, democratic nation that is facing the threat of annexation by China?”

  If the only “real” issues are the ones in which a decision made today would be actualized tomorrow, then even the “white force” — a term frequently tied to Ko that describes people who transcend the pan-blue and pan-green political divide — would be a fake issue, Miao said.

  A mayoral vote would not decide whether a city immediately becomes a “glorious” or a “regressive” city, she said, an apparent allusion to Ko’s former campaign slogans.

  Miao listed a number of hypothetical scenarios, saying that drinking too much today would not result in immediate death and staying up late today does not mean a person would develop liver cancer tomorrow.

  “So people do not have to worry, because [these examples] are all fake issues, right?” she wrote. “The effect of calling [the unification-independence issue] fake is only to enable young people to be too lazy to think about Taiwan’s future.”

  Taipei City Councilor Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) accused Ko of ageism in his defense of Huang.

  Ko’s comments reveal a preconceived notion that being young means a person lacks ability, Wu said on Facebook.

  Ko has once again expressed a deeply rooted patriarchal attitude, she added.
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