Hundreds of college students and professors protesting the police crackdown on demonstrations against the visit of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) in recent days were forcibly evicted yesterday by police from the front gate of the Executive Yuan.
The police later dropped the students at several different locations including Taipei’s Zhongshan District, National Taiwan University and Nangang.
Before the eviction began at around 4:40pm, the students had already decided in a vote that wherever they were dropped off, they would reassemble and discuss their next move at Liberty Square, in front of the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall.
PHOTO: CNA
“The police said we would all be sent to different places without public transportation, but no matter where they take us, we will be back and continue our protest,” said Huang Wei-lin (黃威霖), a graduate student of politics at National Taiwan University (NTU).
The students began the sit-in on Thursday morning with a petition demanding that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) apologize for the excessive use of force by police, that National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) and National Security Bureau Director Tsai Chao-ming (蔡朝明) step down and that the government scrap the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法).
When hundreds of police clad in riot-gear arrived at the scene and started to encircle the students, they linked arms in an attempt to make it harder for police to remove them.
They started singing We Shall Overcome led by Fan Yun (范雲), an associate professor of sociology at NTU.
Sticking to their promise of keeping their demonstration peaceful, the students chanted “Peace, Peace, Peace” and “Human Rights, Human Rights, Human Rights” in chorus as four or five police officers carried each of them away toward the waiting patrol cars.
“We are here for peace. We don’t want to take aim at the police, but the government behind them, as it gave them the order to use excessive force,” said one student.
During the approximately 30 hour sit-in, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) emerged to talk to the students, but his 50-minute conversation with them ended up making them more “disappointed.”
Yesterday morning, Hsueh took ten more questions from the students at the site after sitting on the ground with them while listening to their petition statement.
While many students were still lining up to raise questions, Hsueh decided to cut the conversation short and returned to the Executive Yuan under police protection, leaving the students shouting “[Give us a] timetable.”
“He dodged our questions. We will continue to protest until we receive a positive response,” Huang said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as