Outspoken Taiwanese surgeon visits Beijing 'to know and be known'
Staff Reporter 2013-08-06 16:23
Ko Wen-je. (File photo/Lo Yin-chung)
Ko Wen-je, a renowned surgeon from National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei, said on Aug. 5 that he wants to "know China and to be known in China" because Taiwan needs to deal with its neighbor across the strait.
Ko, an attending physician at and chairman of National Taiwan University Hospital's Department of Traumatology, arrived in Beijing on Aug. 4 as a member of a delegation attending an academic conference in honor of Chiang Wei-shui, a leading figure in Taiwan's resistance to Japanese colonial rule.
The event was co-organized by the Taiwan Research Fund and China Council for the Promotion of Cultural Development.
"China is an issue that Taiwan inevitably needs to face and so I plan to observe the country up close," Ko said. "Now is the right time to be 'on the frontlines' for observation."
Ko, who is seen as a potential candidate for the opposition Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei's mayoral election in 2014, said that he does not want China to know Taiwan only via a "certain batch of people" — that is, the ruling Kuomintang. "At the least, I represent a big chunk of the public," Ko said.
The physician says he hopes he can help promote mutual understanding during his visit, that his goal is to "seek mutual respect."
The delegation was led by Control Yuan member and Taiwan Research Fund founder Huang Huang-hsiung and contains many professors from the National Chengchi University and National Taiwan University in Taipei.
Ko said this is his first visit to China since 2008. Between now and then, he said, he was banned from visiting China due to his public criticism of former president Hu Jintao's Taiwan policy. "Before that, I frequently visited China for medical exchanges," he said.
