Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je responded on Sunday to criticism following a report on him which was posted on Foreign Policy magazine’s web site.
The magazine quoted Ko as saying that “for the [world’s] four Chinese-speaking regions — Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mainland China — the longer the colonization, the more advanced a place is.” The article quoted him as listing the four places, with the most civilized being Singapore, followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.
Ko said on Sunday that what he meant was: “the longer a society is exposed to modern civilization, the more civilized it is.”
The mayor said he did not understand why the media translated his comments the way they did. However, he said he would not request a correction, but rather, the next time he is interviewed by the foreign media, he will make sure that the translation is accurate.