A group of young people plan to stage a vigil tonight in support of Tsai Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴), chairman of the Taiwan Association of University Professors, and other localization activists who are staging a seven-day hunger strike to back demands for amending the Referendum Law (公投法).
Fifty students representing 10 groups will join the hunger strike outside the legislature starting tonight, said Chen Ya-lin (陳亞麟), a rally organizer.
Tsai said he wished to see more young people join him in response to an appeal by some students that he should stop his strike to retain his strength for further protests.
In a message he left on the association’s Web site on Monday, Tsai expressed regret that no young people had joined the hunger strike.
Tsai says the law is undemocratic because it sets unreasonably high thresholds for a referendum to be initiated and to be passed.
“Professor Tsai has said that he wished young people would join him, and we also think that we are obliged to play a role in the fight for a better democracy,” Chen said.
Chen said the student groups launched a drive on the Internet, asking for 1,000 young people to participate in the hunger strike.
“We hope young people planning to join the vigil will bring flashlights so that they can shine them on the legislature to dispel its darkness,” Chen said.
The Taiwan Association of University Professors said in a statement on its Web site that Tsai would end his hunger strike if young people would take over the protest, because that would mean young people are also concerned about issues related to the public interest and that he was not alone in his concern.
Whether he receives support or not, Tsai would continue to push for amending the law, the statement said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
Unlike most countries, Taiwan cannot use its country’s own name to compete in the Olympic Games or other major international sports events. Instead, it participates under the name “Chinese Taipei,” a name that causes confusion and sparks curiosity among many people, including an American director who explored the topic in his new documentary. Garret Clarke, the director of the 20-minute documentary What’s in a Name? A Chinese Taipei Story, said in an recent media interview said that he was motivated to make the documentary because he finds the name “Chinese Taipei” to be “weird.” The dispute that eventually created the name dates back
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to