Members of the Northern Taiwan Society were outraged by claims that plainclothes police outside the National Palace Museum used intimidating tactics during a visit by Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) on Monday.
Northern Taiwan Society director Lin Kuan-miao (林冠妙) said plainclothes police manhandled her during a scuffle outside the museum, adding that the organization’s secretary-general, Lee Chuan-hsin (李川信), heard one admit to being a former gangster.
A large number of police officers wore civilian clothes to maintain a low profile, but several allegedly got involved in scuffles with protesters.
PHOTO: LU CHUN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
BLENDING IN
Lee said he suspected the police wore civilian clothes so observers would believe they were just members of the public.
Lee said one individual he believed to be a plainclothes policeman denied this when questioned.
Lin said after entering the museum at about 4pm, she soon found herself surrounded by five or six plainclothes police. When Chen and his entourage emerged from the museum, Lin shouted at the Chinese envoy to go back to China. At that point, she said, one tall, burly police officer instructed others to silence her.
A policewoman covered Lin’s mouth to prevent her from continuing her protest, she said.
AGAINST HER WILL
Lin said this same burly policeman used his weight to shove her, before calling on his colleagues to grab her. The group then manhandled her, dragging her 20m to 30m in the direction of the main gates, she said. They only released her when a volunteer working for the society, who recognized one of the police officers, approached them.
Lin said she had not been holding any banner or poster when the police accosted her, adding that their behavior during the incident, including the physical force used and the attempt to silence her, amounted to restricting a member of the public’s right to express their opinion.
EX-MOBSTER
Lee said he had overheard one of the plainclothes police -officers near the main gates of the museum warning two students who had come to call on China to release jailed dissident writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) that they should leave, as “things are going to get violent in a while.”
Lee questioned the police oficer’s use of intimidation against the students, asking the man why he was behaving like a gangster. At that point, Lee said, the officer told him it was because he used to be a gangster. Lee said he wasn’t sure how to respond upon hearing that.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS