Chinese social media sites Sina Weibo and Bilibili on Saturday blocked Taiwanese Internet celebrity Chung Wei-ting (仲惟鼎), also known as AmoGood (谷阿莫), from accessing his accounts after he announced a potential bid to run in the election for chairman of the pro-independence New Power Party (NPP).
“As a political party in a democratic country, we welcome all party members to exercise their rights and participate in party elections,” NPP Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said yesterday. “He was banned from accessing his own Sina Weibo account simply because he [wants to run] for NPP chairman. This shows the difference between Taiwan and China: Taiwanese people have the protected right of free speech, while Chinese people cannot enjoy democracy and freedom under the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] regime.”
As an NPP member, Chung has the right to run in the elections for members of the party’s central decisionmaking committee and party chairman, NPP caucus whip Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Chung would have to be elected to the 15-member committee before he qualifies to run as chairman.
Chung’s participation in party elections “should be affirmed and encouraged,” and “shows Taiwan is a diverse and democratic society,” Chiu said.
“The freedom of speech of those who support Taiwan independence or even becoming a state of the US should all be protected,” he said. “Why China would think that Taiwanese people or Internet celebrities would not support an independent Taiwan is beyond me, and this shows China has a long way to go before it becomes a truly democratic state.”
Chung, who is known for his irreverent movie reviews, is involved in several copyright infringement lawsuits.
“As a person who is entering politics, Chung must be ready to have every aspect of his life examined by the public. He owes the public an explanation [for the copyright infringement issues], and lawsuits would be handled through the judicial system,” Chiu said.
Chung wrote a 2,000-character article in Mandarin saying that he participated in the election for NPP central decisionmaking committee members because he wanted to examine the reasons for the party’s decline.
“I want to use new media to oversee party leaders. I might run for NPP chairman if the party lacks good leaders,” he wrote.
In a video released on Sunday, Chung said that he registered on Friday to participate in the election for NPP central decisionmaking committee members.
On Saturday evening, Sina Weibo and Bilibili blocked him from accessing his accounts after Taiwanese news media reported his bid to serve on the committee, he said.
“It is regrettable that I am now banned from posting anything on the Chinese streaming platforms, although I already expected that this was what they would do before I ran,” Chung said. “This shows that there is no true freedom in the CCP regime.”
“The Republic of China, Taiwan exists as a de facto country, and I entered politics because I want to make contributions to Taiwanese society,” he added.
Chung said he joined the NPP because it allows an ordinary party member like him to participate in the election for members of the central decisionmaking committee.
“I was not involved in politics until a good friend of mine joined the NPP a year ago. It made me wonder: ‘What about me? What can I do for Taiwan?’” he said.
Chung said he has more than 10 million subscribers on Sina Weibo and 2 million on Bilibili.
He was also subsequently banned on other Chinese streaming platforms as well, he said.
“I want to start my political career by first being elected to the NPP’s central decisionmaking committee, which would give me an opportunity to reform the party,” he said. “If I was elected and people still did not feel that the NPP has changed, I would not hesitate to leave.”
Votes for central decisionmaking committee members can be cast from Thursday to Saturday, the party said, adding the final list of elected members is to be announced at 11am on Sunday.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test