Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, yesterday said he does not care to respond to Chinese officials’ remarks on Taiwan’s election, as they have no experience of operating in a democracy.
Their “nonsensical comments” about Taiwan’s presidential election is proof that China is interfering in the vote, he added.
Lai, who yesterday announced that Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would be his running mate for the Jan. 13 election, was responding to media queries about remarks made by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮).
Photo: CNA
Zhu said that Lai and Hsiao are a “dual-separatist combination.”
Taiwanese should “be keenly aware” of what the ticket “means for the situation across the Taiwan Strait, the lives and fortunes of Taiwanese, and the future and destiny of Taiwan,” she said.
Separately, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper yesterday quoted Shanghai TAO Deputy Director Yang Li-hua (陽禮華) as saying that Lai winning the election might help to accelerate the process of Taiwan’s unification with China.
Advocating Taiwanese independence would provide China with an opportunity to pursue unification, Yang was quoted as saying.
China “has no fear” and is able to deal with whoever wins the presidential election in January, he said.
However, if Lai is elected president, Beijing might be able to pursue unification much faster, he said.
On the other hand, if the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate won, the process might be slower, giving China “a few more years of development” to become even stronger, he said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
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Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
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