A feature article in a Hong Kong-based magazine depicting President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as an authoritarian leader was an issue that did not deserve much attention, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
The Chinese-language Yazhou Zhoukan (or “Asia Weekly”) posted on Facebook the cover of its edition to be released next week.
It said that Taiwan was under a new authoritarian government headed by Tsai, characterizing her administration as a “dictatorship arising from a popular election.”
An image on the cover portrayed the president as “Empress Tsai,” with her dressed in royal garb from the Qin Dynasty including a crown while she sits smiling on a throne.
The article, which was posted on the magazine’s Web site, said: “Green camp party’s new authoritarianism” and: “Behind the scenes of Taiwan’s dictatorship that arose from a popular election.”
“The DPP has been criticized as becoming too much like the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) during the Martial Law era,” the article said. “President Tsai is turning into a leader of a new authoritarian state.”
“Although she has authority at all levels of government, she has become an empress after winning the popular vote,” it said. “She rules with an administration akin to a dictatorship, with obsequious lawmakers and a justice system that obeys her command.”
The DPP said in a statement that the article should be “analyzed alongside news reports on Taiwan in international media of renown based in democratic countries.”
“This outlet [Yazhou Zhoukan] has for many years consistently supported the ‘one country, two systems’ model,” the DPP said.
“It has also suppressed democracy and freedom in Hong Kong,” it said.
“The latest cover insinuates a particular message that clearly runs contrary to reports from mainstream international media,” the statement said.
“This magazine has been embroiled in many controversies,” the statement said.
“Not only is it pro-China and a mouthpiece for the government in Beijing, it also selected Hong Kong police officers as its ‘Men of the Year’ for last year and made every effort to suppress Hong Kong’s democracy movement,” DPP spokeswoman Yen Juo-fang (顏若芳) said.
“It is of little value for us to comment on this magazine, which had on a previous cover a photograph of Hong Kong police using strong-arm tactics to quell democracy activists,” Yen said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
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
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
EYE ON MAYORS: The DPP would file a complaint with the Control Yuan against Ko and Chiang over their handling of reports of abuse at a preschool in the city The Taipei City Government’s belated response under Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and his predecessor, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), to alleged child sex abuse at a kindergarten resulted in more children being victimized, two Taipei City Councilors said yesterday. A Taipei preschool teacher has been charged with sexually abusing six children from 2021 to last year at a school registered to his mother. Prosecutors are reportedly considering additional charges amid a wave of new accusations allegedly linking the suspect to 20 other abused children and the discovery at his residence of more than 600 sexually explicit videos featuring minors. The