Falun Gong members, Tibetan independence supporters and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday staged protests against Chinese officials who are in Taipei for a round of cross-strait negotiations, resulting in brief clashes with police.
Thwarted by tight security, none of them were able to get close to the Grand Hotel, where Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) was staying.
The protests continued for a second straight day following Chen’s arrival on Wednesday, with the most intense demonstration taking place at the foot of the hill the hotel is on.
Three members of the Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association, including its president, Dachompa Payama, clashed with the police at about 10:30am, when they tried to pass through the heavily guarded checkpoint before being pushed back.
Waving the Tibetan flag and chanting: “We want freedom,” “China out of Tibet now” and “Tibet belongs to the Tibetans,” the protesters demanded to meet Chen to force their point that China keep its hands off Tibet.
A total of 51 Tibetans have burned themselves to death since 2009 to protest against Chinese oppression, Dachompa said, adding that Tibetans in Taiwan could not sit on the sidelines and do nothing for their compatriots in China.
Dachompa also warned Taiwan’s government not to trust Beijing, because China had promised Tibet autonomy in the past.
“Why do you think so many Tibetans have set themselves ablaze? Taiwan has better watch out … it could become the second Tibet,” he said.
The Tibetans submitted a letter of appeal to Tien Chung-yung (田中勇), a representative of Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation, before Greater Tainan Councilor Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) and Taipei City Councilor Tung Chung-yen (童仲彥), and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members did the same.
The DPP members demanded President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government address a pair of recent issues involving China: the removal of Republic of China flags from an Olympics promotional event in London and the detention of Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioner Bruce Chung (鍾鼎邦).
Beyond the checkpoint, hundreds of Falun Gong members packed the sidewalks on Zhongshan N Road Sec 3 with members holding banners condemning Chinese oppression and demanding Beijing immediately release Chung.
Chung’s daughter, Chung Ai (鍾愛), said her mother, Lee Ya-min (李雅敏), on Wednesday met with her father in China’s Jianxi Province with the help of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and that Bruce Chung appeared to be in good condition.
Chung Ai said she hoped the Ma administration would bring her father back as soon as possible.
Falun Gong Taiwan spokesperson Teresa Chu (朱婉琪) said the protest would continue throughout the night and today until the Chinese delegation leaves.
Meanwhile, about 50 protesters gathered in the Taipei Fine Art Museum for a TSU-organized protest yesterday. The TSU had to call off its protest at the hotel after its motorcade was stopped by the police.
Hsiao Kuan-yu (蕭貫譽), director of the TSU’s Department of Organization, asked the demonstrators to go to the hotel on foot.
About 10 protesters were later stopped by the police again on the Chungshan Bridge. Three TSU members who pretended to be tourists were able to get into the hotel briefly at about 1pm, but were immediately escorted out.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS