The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) concluded its 24-hour sit-in protest on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office last night with a prayer for Taiwan’s future.
The prayer was led by Reverend William Luo (羅榮光) and followed DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) concluding speech.
Tsai called for cross-strait issues to be decided by the people and insisted that a referendum should be held on the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement with China.
PHOTO: NICKY LOH, REUTERS
“We need the power of the people from the grassroots upward to fuel a social revolution,” Tsai told the crowd, many of who were calling for the sit-in to be extended to tomorrow, the first anniversary of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration.
Some protesters said they were going to move the sit-in to in front of the Legislative Yuan, but most of the crowd headed for home.
The sit-in began at 10pm on Sunday at the end of the DPP’s rally against Ma’s China policies, which attracted tens of thousands of people.
The sit-in focused on the government’s proposed amendments to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), which the DPP says would expand police power and restrict the right of assembly. The DPP says the proposed amendments are a sign that Taiwan is returning to the authoritarian period.
Tsai, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and the DPP’s 27 legislators spent the night on Ketagalan Boulevard. The DPP said more than 1,000 people stayed overnight.
However, Lu and Su both left early yesterday, with Su saying he wanted to go home to freshen up.
Several anonymous donors and DPP Taipei City councilors supplied meat buns, rice dumplings, watermelon, fried noodles, sticky rice and other food, as well as tea and water, for the protesters yesterday. On Sunday night, former Taiwan Solidarity Union lawmaker Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) had donated more than 1,000 lunch boxes.
Meanwhile, a masked man who was escorted out of the area by the police on Sunday for trying to provoke the protestors reportedly returned to the sit-in area yesterday afternoon, wearing a Republic of China flag. He was eventually escorted away by protestors and police. TV reports said he was carrying a metal rod in his backpack.
The protesters’ numbers swelled yesterday evening as people joined the sit-in after work, the DPP said.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday the government attached great importance to the demonstrators’ views.
Wang quoted Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) as saying protesters’ requests to help the disadvantaged and the jobless were what the government has been doing. Although the government could not control the global financial crisis, it could help reduce the impact, Wang said.
Regarding their demand to revise the Assembly and Parade Act, Wang said Ma hoped to see the amendments clear the legislature as soon as possible. The government would work to protect the freedom of protesters and refrain from imposing restrictions on them unless they obstruct traffic or disrupt social order, Wang said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS