The Taipei Police Department said yesterday that it would allocate 5,000 officers to help maintain order during a protest planned for tomorrow against President Chen Shui-bian (
The anti-Chen campaign has called for 2 million people to join its "siege" tomorrow by encircling the Presidential Office building from four directions during the Double Ten National Day celebration.
"The Double Ten National Day siege against Chen is illegal because the anti-Chen campaign did not apply to the city police department for a rally permit," Taipei City Police Department Commissioner Wang Cho-chiun (
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
"The rally would violate the Assembly and Parade Law (
He said if the anti-Chen campaign used the underground radio stations to call on the public to join the rally and to give orders during the campaign, as it proposed to do, it might violate the Broadcasting and Television Law (
Wang asked the anti-Chen camp to keep its supporters calm during the protest.
"Police will remove and arrest protesters if they break the law during the rally," he said.
The head of the department's Peacekeeping Division, Huang Ching-fu (
Special police are officers whose primary job is to keep order during mass demonstrations.
Huang said that maintaining the security of the Double Ten National Day celebration site, making sure foreign guests attending the celebration could easily enter and leave the site and preventing violence between rival groups outside parade site would be priorities.
Police imposed traffic control restrictions on roads of the Presidential Office yesterday that bar all vehicles from entering the streets near the Presidential Office. The restrictions will remain in effect through tomorrow.
Taipei MRT officials also announced yesterday that all exits of the National Taiwan University Hospital Station, Xiaonanmen Station and some of exits for the CKS Memorial Hall Station will be closed from 6am tomorrow until the the end of the official ceremony.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice yesterday designated a number of Taipei prosecutors to monitor tomorrow's protest.
The ministry said in a statement that anyone breaking the law would be prosecuted.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
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
‘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
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
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