Kuo Kuan-ying, the GIO employee in Toronto who allegedly had a raving mainlander bigot alter ego named Fan Lan-ching, confessed to being Fan Lan-ching today. Sina.com has the news:郭冠英在國外接受國內電視媒體專訪，先是強調自己沒有曠職，是因為他上班後代表處不斷受到「暴民」威脅，基於安全考量，所以在代表處也知情下他先行離開。而記者問到他到底是不是范蘭欽，郭冠英則是改口大方承認。郭冠英：『我就是范蘭欽！我就是范蘭欽！我現在不再去扯什麼，因為很多人從我這去貼文章，或是我幫忙人家去貼文章，還有會去交換文章，那有時覺得文章不錯，幫忙加個頭尾，就放在部落格裡面，但是那裡面的文章，大部分都是我寫的，我來負責。』Kuo Kuan-ying, in an exclusive interview abroad from the Taiwan media, emphasized that he himself was not AWOL, but the problem was that after he went back to work he received threats from "violent people/mobs" [MT: Kuo himself called on China to kill all the TI supporters]. Out of safety considerations, he has left work with the full knowledge of the GIO. Reporters asked him whether he really was Fan Lan-ching, Kuo Kuan-ying openly admitted it, saying "I really am Fan Lan-ching!....."Kuo/Fan had followed the Deep Blue dream career path: after getting a job with the government, his family emigrated to North America, in this case, Canada, where the government assigned him a post, and he will follow them. For too many mainlanders, Taiwan is merely a springboard to somewhere else. Note that Kuo is already back in Canada.
UDN has some video of the GIO press conference, where they announced he has been ting zhi, suspended. (h/t to maddog for the good news). Further updates and revisions to follow as the news comes in.
UPDATE: major media (China Times and Liberty Times) agree that Kuo has been dismissed, not suspended. Which is it?
UPDATE 2: Everyone agrees, he's sacked. From Taiwan News:
The Government Information Office dismissed its Toronto representative Kuo Kuan-ying yesterday after he admitted being the blogger posting insulting remarks about Taiwan on the Internet. The GIO first decided to suspend the contested official during the morning, but after protests that it was being too lenient, it decided yesterday afternoon to go one step further and sack Kuo._______________________
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!
Suspended? That's it? Not much to celebrate there. He'll get a slap on the wrist and either be back at this post or shuffled someplace else. KMT look after their own...
ReplyDeleteLikelihood is that les is right. But at least my 'Ma voting' boss expressed some 'faux?' anger at Kou's comments today. Not heard anything from the President, Chair of the KMT or Legislature ... Hopefully, but not likely, this will put a significant enough dent in the KMT's forthcoming Da'an by election victory.
ReplyDeleteHe is sacked. This was from CNA and Yahoo news has a copy http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/090323/58/1gjwt.html
ReplyDeleteKuo was suspended (not fired!!!???) because the interviews (according CNA).
ReplyDelete...Not because the content of his articles he confessed to be the author!
Incredible...
Beside, I agree with Arthur Dent: "no likely" as he wrote, we will see a significant change in the coming elections...
I don't know who must be blamed, candidates or voters...
Just revoke his Taiwanese citizenship and send him to China. No loss here and he will be happy - unless of course his Canadian citizenship will be revoked too, which of course he does not have as this would disallow him having his government position...
ReplyDeleteArthur: Hopefully, but not likely, this will put a significant enough dent in the KMT's forthcoming Da'an by election victory.
ReplyDeleteDa-an district is a deep-blue territory. KMT opinion poll shows that most important thing to Da-an residents is why CSB is still not judged. As a result KMT will target at CSB for their Da-an by-election.
It shows how different Da-an people's perception is from that of ours.
With that in mind, we need to realize that although Kuo is completely sacked by Taiwanese, he might already be a hero in the mind of pan-bluers.
Think about this: why on earth did he suddenly admits it in front of the camera?
It is very likely that he already knew he will gain more by doing so.
"Just revoke his Taiwanese citizenship and send him to China. No loss here and he will be happy - unless of course his Canadian citizenship will be revoked too, which of course he does not have as this would disallow him having his government position..."
ReplyDeleteKuo said today that his dream is to live in a Taiwan that is a province of China. Ironically, all these Chinese nationalists are all Taiwan-focused now. Their Chinese dreams have (whether they themselves know it or not) become Taiwanese-centered ones!