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.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
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 —
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