Scuffles broke out at the legislature yesterday before Premier Lin Chuan (林全) was scheduled to brief legislators on the budget for the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
In one of the more dramatic moments Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) slapped Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) across the face.
Legislators in the morning signed up to speak about the program during a legislative discussion preceding the first meeting of the second extraordinary legislative session, which began yesterday.
Photo: CNA
KMT secretary-general Lin Wei-chou (林為洲), the last KMT legislator to speak, gave KMT legislators a cue and they flocked to the front of the chamber to occupy the podium where Lin Chuan was scheduled to make his presentation.
Sounding air horns, blowing whistles and brandishing placards, KMT legislators said that the program, which has a budget of NT$420 billion (US$13.82 billion), would cause future generations to be mired in debt.
“Illegal budgeting. Block the review. Money-blowing premier. Lin Chuan step down,” they shouted.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) tried to quell the protest by admonishing the KMT legislators, but his efforts were in vain.
A skirmish broke out between Chiu and Hsu when Chiu approached the KMT legislators and began pulling at a microphone that KMT caucus vice secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) was holding.
Hsu — in an apparent attempt to separate the two — joined the fray and soon became entangled with Chiu.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Hsu slapped Chiu across the face. Chiu responded by pulling her hair.
The two were separated by their colleagues, but that did not stop Chiu from scuffling with other KMT legislators, including Lee, KMT caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) and KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順).
The KMT caucus formed a blockade around the podium, but Su attempted to let Lin Chuan make the presentation nonetheless, prompting KMT lawmakers start throwing brochures, water balloons and fake banknotes in the premier’s direction.
Seeing that the proceedings had been paralyzed, Su advised the premier to leave, before announcing that the meeting would be reconvened today.
Hsu later said that her actions were meant to protect Lee and were inadvertent, and that she would like to apologize to society.
She said that she would be mindful of her interactions with her DPP colleagues from now on, but refused to apologize to Chiu, who she said had acted in a “provocative” manner.
The KMT’s “barbaric” boycott “belittled the legislature and bullied Taiwan,” Chiu said on Facebook.
Following a halt in the proceedings, Su in the afternoon session hastily put the DPP’s proposed agenda to a vote, which secured the majority backing of the DPP caucus.
The issues to be discussed during the extraordinary session included the Cabinet’s budget proposals for projects under the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program and a proposed amendment to the Mining Act (礦業法).
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
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat