Student activists occupying the Legislative Yuan yesterday issued an ultimatum to the government, demanding that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) respond positively to their demands by noon today, or they would take further action.
“We hereby call on Ma and Wang to respond positively and clearly to our demands,” Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), a National Tsing Hua University graduate student and one of the main leaders of the protest, said at a press conference in the main hall of the legislative building in Taipei. “We would like Wang to tell us how he plans to deal with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠), and we would like the government to reject the service trade pact with China and suspend all cross-strait talks until legislation on the monitoring of cross-strait agreements is drafted and passed.”
“If Ma and Wang fail to respond satisfactorily to our demands, we will take further action, the specifics of which we will announce at that time,” he added.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Chen said that nearly 60 percent of the public supports the protesters’ occupation of the legislative chamber, which “shows that we are not just a few, rather, we stand for the majority of the public and we are occupying a chamber that belongs to the people and is meant to work on behalf of the people, since the people’s representatives are not doing their job.”
According to police estimates, there were several thousand protesters surrounding the Legislative Yuan earlier in the day, but the number passed 10,000 in the evening, after rumors spread that the police may break in to clear the legislative chamber before daybreak today.
At about 2am yesterday, Wuer Kaixi, one of the Chinese student leaders at the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, appeared on the legislative floor to voice his support for the students’ movement.
“This is 100 percent democracy in action and I admire what the Taiwanese students are doing,” he told the occupiers. “President Ma Ying-jeou claims that he was a student activist when he was younger, but what he’s doing now is a far cry from upholding democratic values; he should come here to apologize to you, the students.”
“As for Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), I would like to ask him to resign,” Wuer Kaixi added, before singing Goodnight Taiwan and chanting slogans urging the government to reject the trade agreement along with the students, triggering rounds of applause.
Not long after Wuer Kaixi left, another former Tiananmen Square student leader, Wang Dan (王丹), also put in an appearance at the legislature, but declined to speak, saying he was only there to support the demonstrators.
During the day, more than 40 university professors — from National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Taiwan University of Arts, National Tsing Hua University and Fu Jen Catholic University — appeared on a stage outside the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road to teach “civic lessons” to students.
Many professors, such as Fu Jen associate professor of psychology Ho Tung-hung (河東洪), invited their students to join them for a lesson on the streets outside the Legislative Yuan, or offered them official leave if they wanted to skip the class to join the protest.
In a letter, National Dong Hwa University president Wu Mao-kun (吳茂昆) praised the students’ action.
“I admire you [students] for showing concern about current issues and bravely voicing your views,” the letter read. “I fully respect your decision if you choose to skip class to join the protest.”
Meanwhile, to ensure the health of the protesters and handle any medical emergencies, about 15 physicians, nurses and pharmacists were on standby at the Legislative Yuan.
“There are physicians, pharmacists and nurses here to handle simple medical needs,” physician Lin Hsin-jung (林信榮) said from the legislature. “Most of our medical supplies were donated by the public or lawmakers, and we [the medical professionals] are here voluntarily to show our support.”
The Taipei-based Legal Aid Foundation’s and the Judicial Reform Foundation have also offered their services to the protesters should they be arrested by police, urging the students to call (02) 3393-8666 for information about legal aid.
Within 24 hours of the hotline being set up, more than 100 lawyers had volunteered to help represent the activists in case of arrests, including Wellington Koo (顧立雄), a Democratic Progressive Party hopeful for the Taipei mayoral poll; Liu Chi-wei (劉繼蔚), who represented late army corporal Hung Chung-chiu’s (洪仲丘) family; and Tseng Wei-kai (曾威凱), who has represented Hualon Corp’s (華隆) laid-off workers.
Additional reporting by Ching Jen-hao
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