New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, yesterday said he supports maintaining close relations with the US while keeping a peaceful relationship with China, adding that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) foreign policy has cost the country multiple allies and made it unable to join regional economic organizations.
Hou and his running mate, Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), at a news conference in New Taipei City also vowed to impose tougher sanctions on scammers.
Asked on the sidelines to comment on Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and candidate Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) plan to follow Tsai’s foreign policy, Hou said that he opposes China’s “one country, two systems” policy and would defend Taiwan’s freedom, democracy and sovereignty, but would not support independence.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
“My position is that we should maintain close relations with the US while keeping a peaceful relationship with China. We should remain a strong ally to the US, but we also need to communicate and increase mutual understanding with China,” Hou said.
“The balance of cross-strait relations has been disrupted because of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) foreign policy. People now fear an imminent war,” he added, calling Tsai’s foreign policy a “complete failure.”
“In the past seven years, Taiwan has lost multiple allies. There is no communication, no dialogue and no exchanges between Taiwan and China, either,” Hou said.
“Because of the DPP government’s error, we cannot join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. This shows that the nation needs an adjustment in the direction of foreign policy, because what Tsai has done clearly did not work,” he said.
Facing the military threat from China, Taiwan must not harbor any impractical thoughts, he said.
“The safety of Taiwan does not depend solely on the promises made by the US. We must have a practical view of our relations with China and democratic allies,” he added.
During the news conference, Hou vowed to launch a massive crackdown on scammers during the first year of his presidency if elected, and to reduce scam cases by half by his third year.
A rise in scams has also contributed to an increase in other organized criminal activity, including drug trafficking, he said.
The DPP government has spent NT$2.7 billion (US$85.6 million) cracking down on scams, but cases continue to rise from about 20,000 last year to 30,000 this year, Hou said.
About 46,000 suspects were arrested last year alone for alleged involvement in scams, he added.
Hou touted his record of reducing violent criminal cases when he headed the National Police Agency, first by extensively investigating vehicle thefts.
Hou attributed the continual rise in scam cases to light sentencing and a lack of coordination among government agencies.
Once convicted, only about 0.5 percent of scammers are sentenced to three years in prison or longer, even if the money involved was in the billions, he said.
“If elected, I propose that individuals or organizations participating in scams will be subject to criminal liability, under which penalties should be raised 50 percent. The same penalty would apply to those who repeatedly let scammers use their bank accounts for money-laundering purposes,” he said.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS