The opposition Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) chairman and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen says that it was her party which paved the way for tourist arrivals from China. Her comments came on Sunday in response to remarks from her competitor, the Kuomintang’s presidential candidate Eric Chu.
The exchange began with Tsai promising that she would not decrease tourist arrivals from China if she is elected president in January. She pointed out that it was a DPP administration which had opened the door to the tourists in the first place.
Chu responded by saying that if the DPP wanted to claim the opening up to Chinese tourists as their own achievement, then “even old ladies would laugh at the idea.”
Tsai then responded by saying that the DPP had created the policy from scratch, building a foundation for future administrations. She said that if “old ladies do not understand that, and laugh, it’s fine.” However, she said, “if Eric Chu does not understand that, then it’s a big problem.”
Tsai urged her competitor not to get caught up in a political battle of words.