The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday condemned Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers for allegedly pushing a police officer at a protest on Friday, and accused it of using excessive violence against civil servants and officers.
A group of KMT legislators and city councilors were on Friday blocked by police from entering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to demand that Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) explain the ministry’s stance on the suicide last year of Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), the then-director-general of the Osaka branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Japan.
Footage shared by DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) yesterday appeared to show KMT Legislator Arthur Chen (陳宜民) asking a police officer which unit she belonged to and knocking off her hat before pushing her.
Photo courtesy of Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu
The DPP condemns the KMT for using violence against civil servants for political purposes, DPP spokesman Ho Po-wen (何博文) said.
Ho said that KMT legislators William Tseng (曾銘宗) and Lin Te-fu (林德福) also intimidated a ministry press official and repeatedly asked him whether he was a National Security Bureau agent, calling on the KMT to apologize for treating police and civil servants like “enemies.”
Chen’s actions constitute gender discrimination and contempt for the police, DPP spokeswoman Lee Yen-jong (李晏榕) said, asking whether the KMT’s acts of violence on Friday, as well as a protest it staged on Monday — during which party members carried a mock coffin with Su’s name on it and tried to rush into the ministry — were signs that its presidential campaign was not going well.
The DPP legislative caucus agreed to file a complaint against Chen with the Legislative Yuan’s Discipline Committee, DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said.
The KMT legislative caucus told a news conference that the National Police Agency’s Special Police Sixth Corps was committing slander against legislators.
Tseng said President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration was trampling over the rights of the legislative branch by sending “500 police against nine legislators” who wanted to enter the ministry.
The government’s claim that it is “the administration most willing to communicate with others” has been proven false, Tseng said, adding: “If the administration would not even talk to people’s representatives, how can it communicate with the public?”
On the DPP’s claim that he and Lin strong-armed a press official, Tseng said that the person approached him and Lin to ask questions, adding that they simply asked his to produce his identification first.
There was no altercation of any sort, Tseng said, adding that he reserved his right to file slander charges against the ministry.
Chen said the police officer wore a cap with the words “New Zealand” emblazoned on it, had not identified herself and stood nearby recording the altercation on her cellphone.
“I do not think a cap with the words ‘New Zealand’ printed on it is official wear for the Republic of China police,” he said.
Chen denied pushing the officer, saying that he tapped her on the shoulder to ask her to leave.
He could understand why Su committed suicide after online criticism against him, Chen said on Friday.
He would demand the minister of the interior and the corps to apologize if it turns out that the officer had indeed not identified herself, he added.
SHOW OF SUPPORT: As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan might collaborate with Manila against China’s aggressive actions, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday hinted that Taiwan might join forces with the Philippines to protect navigational freedoms, days after Beijing blocked Philippine supply ships in the South China Sea. The ministry made the comment when asked whether Taipei would be willing to join forces with the Philippines to protect the latter from increasingly aggressive activities by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy and China Coast Guard. Taiwan “is willing to cooperate with any other nation with shared values in areas of common concern, including maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacfic region,” it wrote in a statement. A Chinese
‘LIKE A BLACK HOLE’: The figure is about 7% of China’s reported military spending, although diplomats and experts say that number is often opaque or not fully inclusive China spent about US$15 billion, or 7 percent of its defense budget, on exercises in the western Pacific last year, according to a previously unpublished Taiwanese estimate, showing Beijing’s investment in military activity around Taiwan and its neighbors. The internal research by the military, reviewed by Reuters, offers a rare look into a slice of China’s defense spending as Beijing has ramped up its military presence amid rising tensions in the region. China claims Taiwan as its own and is also locked in disputes with several nations over sovereignty of large parts of the South China Sea and the East China Sea. “This
‘GLOBAL THREAT’: MOFA said that it welcomes the ‘staunch US support’ and that ‘China again made spurious claims about Taiwan that do not accord with reality’ US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stressed the importance of stability in the Taiwan Strait, while a senior Chinese military official warned the US to stop “collusion” with Taiwan in a rare one-on-one meeting yesterday, both sides said. Sullivan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, the first US national security adviser to visit China since 2016, for three days of talks with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) and other high-ranking officials. Yesterday morning, Sullivan met with Zhang Youxia (張又俠), vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and China’s second-highest-ranking military official, at the Beijing headquarters of the commission.
PRESSURE: The Solomon Islands, acting under explicit instructions from Beijing, is aiming to prevent Taiwan from attending the next forum to be held in Honiara Australia has voiced support for Taiwan despite the Solomon Islands’ plan to undermine Taiwan’s status as an observer at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). The forum is one of the most important international organizations in the Pacific region, made up of 18 member states, including Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan’s Pacific allies, associate members and observers, along with “dialogue partners” such as the US, Japan, Canada and the EU. The 53rd edition of the forum opened in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, yesterday. Taiwan has been taking part in the forum and related events as a “developmental partner” under the name Taiwan / Republic of