The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday urged the government to change the date of Youth Day from March 29 to March 21, the day in 1990 that former president Lee Teng-hui (
"Youth Day is the day that Chinese revolutionaries initiated a rebellion against the Qing Dynasty in 1911, before the Republic of China (ROC) was built," TSU's director of the Department of Youth Development Wang I-chou (王義州) said in a news conference held yesterday afternoon at the TSU's headquarters. "However, the ROC doesn't exist anymore for young people living in Taiwan. The origin of this red-letter day has nothing to do with them. We think it makes no sense that the central government still holds services to pay homage to Chinese revolutionaries."
In 1954, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government set March 29 as the nation's Youth Day to commemorate the "72 Martyrs" who died in an unsuccessful revolt against the Qing Dynasty launched in Guangzhou in 1911.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Wang said that the TSU will ask its legislative caucus to propose a motion to change Youth Day from March 29 to March 21, a significant day that triggered a series of political reforms.
In March 1990, over 300,000 college students launched a sit-in demonstration at CKS Memorial Hall to ask for direct election of the president and vice president and an over-all re-election of National Assembly representatives. On March 21, Lee, then president, received the student representatives in the Presidential Office and reacted positively to their demands.
"Taiwanese young people created history with their actions and ignited the reform on March 21," Wang said. "We think that day should be set as Taiwan's Youth Day."
Chao Tien-lin (
Meanwhile, TSU Secretary-General Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) said yesterday that the party has issued an order asking all TSU members to help mobilize at least 100,000 people to join in Saturday's march. Chen said that Lee will give a speech on that day but might not join in the parade because of security concerns.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
China is likely to focus on its economy over the next four years and not set a timetable for attempting to annex Taiwan, a researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday. In the article titled “Why China isn’t scared of Trump: US-Chinese tensions may rise, but his isolationism will help Beijing,” Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) wrote that the US and China are unlikely to go to war over Taiwan in the next four years under US president-elect Donald Trump. While economic and military tensions between the US and China would
RSS