People First Party (PFP) chairman and pan-blue camp vice presidential candidate James Soong (
Soong's move nearly caused the situation to get out of control, however, as supporters and TV cameramen surged forward. Security personnel had to swiftly intervene to prevent a possible accident.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Soong claimed that over 300,000 people took part in the rally.
After the rally, Soong would not comment on his "kissing the land,"except to say that it had been planned in advance but was only known by top-level blue-camp campaign staff.
The problems Soong's kneeling caused were the result of a failure by the blue camp to synchronize Soong's kneeling down and that of Nationalist (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
The Taichung rally was one of a number or campaign rallies held simultaneously around the country.
An official with the PFP, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that according to the initial plans, Lien should have been the first to kneel down to kiss the ground, which was to be followed by Soong and those leading rallies elsewhere in the country.
The time set for the synchronized move was at 3:20pm, but due to errors in communication links Soong did not make the move until 3:26pm, a little ahead of Lien in Taipei who was apparently also confused about what caused the glitch.
PFP lawmaker Hwang Yih-jiau (
"It has been kept top secret in the blue team. Only a small number of people knew about it. In practice, Soong should not be the only one to kneel down. It would make more sense if all the people around him did the same," Hwang said.
Soong's kneeling down was not beyond the expectations of the green team. President Chen Shui-bian (
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra