The Taipei City Government has been accused of using public funds to glorify a mayoral hopeful, after it last week published a book lauding the city’s COVID-19 response for more than NT$3,000 (US$107.06) per copy.
Critics on Sunday decried the book, titled Record of Resilience: Documenting Taipei’s Pandemic Response (堅韌的疫誌—台北市防疫紀實), as an attempt to pave the way to city hall for Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊).
Huang — who is expected to run for mayor in November — is mentioned 44 times throughout the book and in all but one of its 15 chapters, said Taipei City Councilor Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
Chien cited excerpts calling Huang a “global pioneer in proposing quarantine hotels” and praising her “beautiful record in the first half of the [COVID-19] pandemic, laying a solid foundation for epidemic prevention in Taipei.”
At a release event for the book on Thursday last week at the Bopiliao Historical Block in Wanhua District (萬華), the area where an outbreak began in May last year, Huang said that this was where she and the first responders “wrote history.”
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) tasked Huang with compiling the book, which was published by the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism.
The city spent NT$1.53 million to publish 500 copies of the 320-page book, which it is selling for NT$350, working out to a cost of NT$3,060 per copy.
The department said the cost was mainly due to the project’s scope, as many people were interviewed for the book.
The number of books in the initial print run was determined based on the funds remaining following editorial and design costs, it added.
Chien also criticized Ko’s apparent hypocrisy in publishing a book when he has in the past canceled publication subscriptions and declined to issue paper stimulus vouchers.
The book also leaves out controversy surrounding the city’s vaccine allocations last year, contrasting its stated purpose as a record of the outbreak, she added.
Huang on Sunday denied that the book was meant for self-promotion, saying that it is a record of the city’s pandemic response and her colleagues’ recollections of their collective resilience during hard times.
It would hopefully serve as a model for future administrations when facing their own outbreaks, she said, joking that if it were truly just about her, it would be called “Vivian Huang’s Pandemic Diary.”
Taipei City Government spokeswoman Chen Chih-han (陳智菡) said that the city has accumulated valuable experience in pandemic prevention over the past year, and created the book as a good learning resource.
More than 100 first responders were interviewed for the book, which also recounted the actions of city agencies, medical institutions and private organizations, Chen said.
As a commander of the response team, Huang invariably played a prominent role in the book, she added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated