Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) yesterday dismissed the idea of establishing a protest zone during upcoming high-level cross-strait talks in the city as “premature,” saying it would be unconstitutional to deprive people of the right to assemble outside a designated area.
“It is strange to set up a place like that when no protest application has been filed. Such thinking is very premature,” he said. “It is like when you invite somebody to dinner. The guest must accept the invitation first. And if the city wanted protesters to stage demonstrations at a designated area, they might not want to do it there. Do you want me to violate the Constitution and strip people of their right to assemble and parade?”
Hu made the remarks in response to media inquiries about a Chinese-language United Daily News report yesterday that quoted Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) spokesman Maa Shaw-chang (馬紹章) as saying that the Taichung City Government would set up a protest zone for the upcoming meeting. The report said the area would be 30,000 pings (nearly 100,000m2) and free to enter.
On Nov. 24, Hu promised to find a protest area that would satisfy the needs of all involved and at the same time ensure public safety. SEF Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) said on Nov. 25 that there would be an area set up where different opinions would be expressed.
Maa mentioned on Wednesday that there would be a kind of “opinion plaza” where no admission would be required for the public to have their voices heard.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) yesterday said she agreed with Hu’s new stance because it did not make sense to prohibit protesters from staging demonstrations outside a certain area.
Lai said that the government respected freedom of speech and would protect this right in accordance with the law.
She said she believed the government agency supervising the implementation of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) would allow protesters to fully express their opinions. She also supported and trusted the professionalism of the law enforcement offices, she said.
“If necessary, we will recommend that the supervisory agency of the Assembly and Parade Act negotiate with civic groups so they can gather and protest freely,” she said.
Lai said she did not know anything about a protest zone nor was she certain who proposed the idea. She said that she did not think it made sense to set up such an area before applications to protest were filed.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said the Taichung City Government never promised to, nor could it, set up the zone because it would violate the Assembly and Parade Act. However, the city could offer assistance, including negotiating the route, area, time and scale of a protest after applications are filed.
Meanwhile, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Hu Sing-hwa (胡興華) yesterday said the agreement on quality checks of agricultural products that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait seek to sign during the meeting was just a “principle accord” and would not affect the 830 agricultural products banned from importation from China.
The two sides will address four issues in the next round of cross-strait negotiations: fishing industry cooperation, quality checks of agricultural products, cross-strait cooperation on inspection and certification and the prevention of double taxation.
Kao is scheduled to lead a delegation to Fuzhou, China, on Thursday next week for preparatory negotiations on the four agreements.
The delegation will arrange the details of SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung’s (江丙坤) meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), icluding the date, location and schedule.
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