By Mo Yan-chih / Staff Reporter
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign office yesterday confirmed that its delegation to the US will seek to meet with Taiwanese baseball pitchers Wang Chien-ming (王建民) and Kuo Hong-chih (郭泓志) in praise of their dedication to sports. However, it denied that the delegation will attempt to use their fame for election campaign purposes.
The delegation, led by executive director of Ma’s re-election campaign office King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), will leave on a 12-day trip to the US today to boost Ma’s momentum among overseas supporters ahead of the January presidential election.
The visit sparked disputes yesterday as a new Facebook fan page was created revealing that Ma’s campaign team was contacting both Wang and Kuo’s agents, seeking to arrange meetings with the two Taiwanese star baseball players.
“Ma’s team is obviously trying to use the delegation’s meetings with Wang and Kuo to create a false impression that the two athletes are supportive of the KMT presidential candidate,” the page said, adding that the campaign team would also contact Taiwanese golf star Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) to also request a meeting.
The page alleged that Ma and his campaign office are making things difficult for Taiwanese athletes by asking them to cooperate with their campaign activities, and urged Ma and all other politicians to stop using athletes as tools for election purposes.
Ma’s campaign office spokesperson Lee Chia-fei (李佳霏) yesterday said the delegation will have a 10-minute meeting with the two baseball players in the US, to relay Ma’s encouragement and blessing to them.
“There won’t be any political language in the brief meeting ... President Ma has always cared about the two players, and we hope all Taiwanese athletes overseas feel the support of the people of Taiwan,” she said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said the KMT should be ashamed of itself because anyone who understands US professional sports knows that ball clubs and players do not like to be disturbed during the regular season.
The best way to show your support for overseas Taiwanese athletes is to buy tickets and watch them play from the stands, Chen added.
Additional reporting by Chris Wang