Why did police attack Chou?
In the small hours of Monday morning, when riot police violently expelled the students who broke into the Executive Yuan, one small figure stood in front of the police, trying to protect the unarmed students from harm.
This small figure was Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Chou Ni-an (周倪安).
However, a riot policeman used his shield to attack her and when she fell, the police even trampled on her chest.
The attack fractured the bone beneath the lawmaker’s right eye and she was hospitalized.
Chou has tried her best to protect the students from getting hurt by the police since the first night protesters rose up against President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) dictatorship.
She wore a vest showing the TSU logo and her identity as a lawmaker. When the riot police attacked her they could see it and they knew quite well that they were attacking a lawmaker.
This is an atrocity by the ruling machine of Ma. It is no less heinous than those of the Maidan butchers in Kiev or those of Tiananmen Square in 1989.
People may ask why the protesters rose up.
First, they were angered by Ma’s insistence on the passage of the trade pact between Taiwan and China, by his arrogance and by his denial of basic human rights.
These are also the reasons the students chose to occupy the legislative chamber.
The students were even more incensed by Ma’s blatant lies to the media at the international press conference in the morning they broke into the Legislative Yuan.
In fact, the students chanted “peace” as their main slogan.
They were empty-handed, let alone carrying any weapons. And at the time the riot police launched the attack, most students just sat on the ground.
However, the police still used cudgels and high-pressure water cannons to attack the students and protesters.
The protesters are absolutely not rioters. The real rioters are in fact the riot police.
Nonetheless, the riot police were nothing but the criminal tools of Ma. Ma is the real black hand behind the scene. He is the real principal conspirator.
Unfortunately, during the past three decades, Taiwan has never really democratized; the rulers have scarcely followed the rule of law.
Ma is the worst such ruler.
The police still do not acknowledge that they take their pay from the taxpayers, whom they should really serve.
The protesters, including the students, are our compatriots. They are not the enemies of the police.
It is Ma who has made all this trouble.
He is the main culprit. He is the one who bears all the responsibility.
He is also the one who should pay.
Chia Tek-khiam
Taipei,
Member of International Federation of Journalists and Taiwan Association of Journalists
US president-elect Donald Trump continues to make nominations for his Cabinet and US agencies, with most of his picks being staunchly against Beijing. For US ambassador to China, Trump has tapped former US senator David Perdue. This appointment makes it crystal clear that Trump has no intention of letting China continue to steal from the US while infiltrating it in a surreptitious quasi-war, harming world peace and stability. Originally earning a name for himself in the business world, Perdue made his start with Chinese supply chains as a manager for several US firms. He later served as the CEO of Reebok and
US$18.278 billion is a simple dollar figure; one that’s illustrative of the first Trump administration’s defense commitment to Taiwan. But what does Donald Trump care for money? During President Trump’s first term, the US defense department approved gross sales of “defense articles and services” to Taiwan of over US$18 billion. In September, the US-Taiwan Business Council compared Trump’s figure to the other four presidential administrations since 1993: President Clinton approved a total of US$8.702 billion from 1993 through 2000. President George W. Bush approved US$15.614 billion in eight years. This total would have been significantly greater had Taiwan’s Kuomintang-controlled Legislative Yuan been cooperative. During
US president-elect Donald Trump in an interview with NBC News on Monday said he would “never say” if the US is committed to defending Taiwan against China. Trump said he would “prefer” that China does not attempt to invade Taiwan, and that he has a “very good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Before committing US troops to defending Taiwan he would “have to negotiate things,” he said. This is a departure from the stance of incumbent US President Joe Biden, who on several occasions expressed resolutely that he would commit US troops in the event of a conflict in
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in recent days was the focus of the media due to his role in arranging a Chinese “student” group to visit Taiwan. While his team defends the visit as friendly, civilized and apolitical, the general impression is that it was a political stunt orchestrated as part of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda, as its members were mainly young communists or university graduates who speak of a future of a unified country. While Ma lived in Taiwan almost his entire life — except during his early childhood in Hong Kong and student years in the US —
RSS