Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

A private corporation or institution has the right to grant employees special paid leave to study for a doctoral degree. People might look on in envy, but they have no say in the matter.

However, people are entitled to say a thing or two if the same scenario takes place at a government institution, as it concerns taxpayers’ money.

Legislator Ann Kao (高虹安), the Taiwan People’s Party’s (TPP) candidate for Hsinchu mayor, has been trying to justify her “privilege” and explain why she was given special paid leave at the Institute for Information Industry, which allowed her to spend 574 days on “business trips” within six years to obtain a doctoral degree at the University of Cincinnati.

China’s desire to annex Taiwan is an inarguable fact and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who participated in the Sunflower movement in 2014, must be fully aware of this, too.

However, whenever people express opposition to Beijing’s “united front” work, Ko often challenges them by saying things like: “Why don’t you call to abolish the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement [ECFA] signed between Taiwan and China in 2010?”

By saying that, the mayor is essentially helping China to emotionally blackmail Taiwan.