Facing a lawsuit by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) over comments that he was placed on the party’s legislator-at-large list for January’s elections as if by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that he was just being honest.
Chiu was eighth on the list when it was announced on Nov. 13, but he withdrew following criticism that the candidates included some with controversial views regarding China.
The New Party on Thursday announced its legislator-at-large list, with Chiu atop it.
Photo: CNA
Ko on Friday told reporters that the New Party’s list “looked like it has been nominated by the CCP,” and that Chiu’s “nomination by the KMT and the New Party means that China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has pretty good control over them.”
Chiu and New Party members yesterday filed a lawsuit at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, accusing Ko of defamation and breach of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法).
Ko yesterday said that “the deep-blue camp calls me the pan-green camp, the deep-green camp calls me the pan-blue camp, but actually we just want to remain in the middle, because with the US-China economic conflict and tense cross-strait relations, staying on the middle path will bring the maximum benefit to Taiwan.”
Ko said he was surprised that the KMT did not change its list after its revisions were criticized.
This made him ask what force was behind the list, he said.
“It is even more interesting with Chiu, who was first nominated by the KMT and later by the New Party, so it is easy to guess who is the boss behind both,” Ko said.
“Sometimes, I am the only one to say what everyone thinks; I am audacious in that way, that’s all,” he said. “I was just being honest.”
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS