Ting Shou-Chung Apologizes for Controversial Statement|"單身獨居男性易犯案" 丁守中為失言道歉

A public figure should really be careful of what they say! Kuomintang Taipei mayoral election candidate Ting Shou-chung, had openly said "single men living alone are more likely to commit crimes",which drew immense backlash, forcing him to apologize on the 14th. Meanwhile,Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-Je held a press conference to commemorate the one year anniversary of the 2017 Taipei Universiade. Ko said he will set up a simple exhibition, in order to avoid having opponents accusing him of abusing government budget for self-promotion.


At the one-year anniversary of the Taipei Universiade, the city government held an exhibition for the game's artifacts. The exhibit was originally planned to showcase moving installations, but after some adjustment, it now displays only artifacts. Incumbent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-Je said that, as the mayoral election approaches, he doesn't want to draw attention to the exhibit and have opponents from both major parties to criticize him for using government budget for self-promotion. Ko said that he also hope the exhibit could boost the morale of Taiwanese athletes, who are getting ready for the upcoming Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

There might be people who criticize me for self-promotion if I set up a massive exhibition. Therefore, I changed it to just a simple exhibit. It serves to showcase the different categories of artifacts and knowledge, while hopefully boost the morale of Taiwanese athletes set to compete (in the Asian Games) in Jakarta. (Are you worried that opponents from the KMT and DPP try to find ways to criticize you?) That's how politics work in Taiwan, (political opponents) try to tear you down even if it damages the nation's interests.

Ko stressed that he wasn't taking advantage of the Universiade (for self-promotion) nor did his spend a big budget on the exhibition. However, a city councilor from the ruling DPP claims that Ko's team has a list of city councilors who support and oppose him, and that the team will plan to marginalize those who stand against him. Ko also commented on the statement.

If you are a hateful person, you'd see hatred in everything. (Therefore your team doesn't have such list?) (Is city councilor Hsu Shu-Hua considered your opposition?) How can they make such claim? Did they take part in our campaign meeting? Or did they bug our headquarters? Or do they simply don't know anything?

On the other hand, KMT candidate for the mayoral election, Ting Shou-Chung, recently said that "single men living alone are more likely to commit crimes." His statement draw heavy backlash as some consider it to be discriminative. On the 14, Ting apologized for his earlier statement before promoting his policies for women and children.

If it makes everyone so unhappy, I would like to apologize, as it wasn't my intention (to offend anyone). My intention behind the statement was to stress the importance of enhancing the social security network. I also cited scientific figures for the statement; the figures come from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Ting Shou-Chung stressed that he cited figures from the health ministry to back up his statement, and he didn't expect so much backlash and misunderstanding. On the other hand, former Deputy Mayor Tzou Wen-Hsiang announced Tuesday that he will no longer run for Taipei mayor. In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Tzou criticized the campaigns for idiotic statements and for not focusing on issues that actually matter. He said that those who only want to make contribution will not succeed in this race and that he has decided to no longer take part.