Tainan city councilors of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday demanded that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) apologize to the public for “obstructing free speech” after he ordered prosecutors to investigate them over their claim that fake Triple Stimulus Coupons were circulating the city.
At a news conference held at the legislature where they were joined by KMT legislators, Tainan City councilors Wang Chia-chen (王家貞) and Lee Chung-tsen (李中岑) said that Su, who brushed off concerns about fake stimulus coupons being used at small shops in Tainan, was obstructing free speech and “reversing the course of democracy.”
Su should apologize, they added.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Wang and Lee said that after they held a news conference on July 20 alleging that there had been counterfeit vouchers circulating, they and their assistants were late last month summoned by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning on a charge of breaching the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法).
This was a violation of their free speech rights, they said.
When approached by prosecutors, they provided a fake voucher to them as evidence, Lee said, adding that she was unsure what they had done to break the law.
When the DPP was an opposition party, it criticized the legislation as a violation of free speech and proposed revising the act, but after coming to power, the DPP found the law useful and changed its tactics, KMT Legislator Yeh Yu-lan (葉毓蘭) said.
In bringing up the issue of fake stimulus coupons, the councilors were doing their duty as representatives of the city’s residents, KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said.
The DPP’s use of the act to silence them was a way of holding on to power, she said.
Su added insult to injury by brushing off concerns about the fake vouchers, she said, adding that Su should publicly apologize.
“Unless the councilors made the fake coupons themselves, in what way did they cause a social disturbance?” KMT caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) asked.
The DPP often questioned government policy when it was an opposition party, but never produced any evidence of wrongdoing by the KMT administration, Lin said.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
RSS