New Power Party (NPP) legislative candidates yesterday appeared outside the Ministry of Education (MOE) building to show their support for the students protesting against the ministry’s curriculum guideline changes, and vowed to take legal action against Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) and police officers over the death of a young activist.
The anti-curriculum guideline change protest intensified after student protester Dai Lin (林冠華) was found dead on Thursday in what is believed to have been a suicide.
The protesters yesterday at about 1:33am began breaking down police barricades and scaling the walls to enter the courtyard of the ministry offices and staged a sit-in there.
NPP legislative candidates, including Neil Peng (馮光遠), Freddy Lim (林昶佐), Ko Shao-chen (柯劭臻) and Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸), yesterday appeared outside the ministry building to show their support.
“I would like to say that I condemn the minister for causing the horrible political suicide through disclosing confidential information,” said Ko, who is also an attorney.
“We will file lawsuits against Wu, Zhongzheng First Police Precinct Police Chief Chang Chi-wen (張奇文) and police officers who made the arrests of student activists who stormed the ministry building on July 23 for leaking confidential information,” Ko told the crowd.
Ko said Lin would probably not have killed himself if the ministry and the police did not tell his school to visit his family, putting more pressure on him.
“The NPP’s lawyers will continue to pursue the responsibility of the judiciary and the ministry,” Ko said.
NPP Hsinchu City candidate Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), who is also a lawyer, has been at the protest scene since early yesterday morning to provide legal assistance to the protesters.
The NPP also issued a statement, calling on the ministry to halt its implementation of the new curriculum guidelines, while urging the ministry to make a law on revising the curriculum that includes a mechanism to allow the participation of students and teachers in the process.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper