The Democratic Action Alliance yesterday urged the public to join a so-called peace rally on Saturday to protest the Legislative Yuan's NT$610.8 billion (US$18.25 billion)proposed bill to buy weaponry from the US. The civil group's rally will begin at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall at 2pm and continue in a march along Ketagalan Avenue.
"Arms procurement cannot ensure the safety of Taiwan," National Taiwan University (NTU) psychology professor Huang Kuang-kuo (
The special arms procurement budget of NT$610.8 billion, approved by the Cabinet in early June, will buy eight diesel-electric submarines, six PAC-3 anti-missile systems and 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft from the US.
The price tag makes this the biggest arms purchase from the US in a decade, and has stirred complaints from lawmakers and others. The Alliance argued that the arms package is unfit for strategic use in the Taiwan Strait, and is instead tailored to the interests of the US and intended as political gamesmanship.
"The cross-strait issue is a political dilemma in which military clout hardly offers a way out," said Chang Ya-chung (
The Alliance said that the arms package violates the spirit of democracy.
"The people of Taiwan already said no to a military budget in the March 20 referendum devised by the ruling party," said Chu Hui-liang (
"If there is really a necessity for war, I want to know who we are fighting for and what we are fighting for," demanded Wang Fang-ping (
Echoing Wang's skepticism, novelist Chu Ten-hsin (
The Alliance contended that the arms deal will only inflame nationalism and squeeze out spending for social welfare. Joyce Feng (
Feng said that if the government can lavish NT$610.8 billion on weaponry, there is no reason why they cannot afford the annual pension budget. According to Feng, the pension budget has been cut for 11 straight years.
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
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 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
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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