Young pro-independence activists were yesterday detained by police after protesting the Taipei-Shanghai forum and preventing Shanghai Vice Mayor Zhou Bo (周波) from giving a speech at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport).
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) lacks the authority to represent the Taiwanese public, they said.
One protester, Lee Chia-yu (李嘉宇), raised placards with the slogans: “Taiwan is Taiwan,” “Taiwan / Swine flu, One Country on Either Side,” and “Chinese Taipei and Both Sides are Family – Ko Playing with Fire?” at the airport.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Zhou who had attended the forum at the Regent Hotel in Taipei, was scheduled to depart for Shanghai from the airport.
Lee said that Taiwanese could never accept Ko unilaterally claiming that the “two sides of the Strait are one family” without first gaining their consent.
Taiwanese must be conscious of their own sovereignty, Lee said, adding that the world is waiting for Taiwan to make the declaration that it is an independent and free country.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
“The world is waiting for us to join the global effort preventing China from further damaging democratic values,” Lee added.
During their protest, Lee and others waved a bag of pork around, and also tore apart Ko’s books, The White Force (白色的力量) and White Force 2 — Keep it Real: Ko Wen-je’s Theory on Urban Evolution (白色的力量2—改變成真：柯文哲的城市進化論).
The group was waving the bag of pork to symbolize preventing Chinese pork from entering the country, as there is an outbreak of African swine fever in China.
The World Organization for Animal Health is on the verge of recognizing Taiwan as a country that is free of food-and-mouth disease without the use of vaccinations, which could help Taiwan get back on track after a bout of foot-and-mouth disease wiped out much of its pork export market in 1997.
Lee lambasted Ko for talking politics with China while the world is bracing for the full impact of African swine fever.
Lee was part of the group which on Feb. 28 poured red paint on the sarcophagus of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪).
While Zhou was scheduled to give a short talk at the airport, it was canceled due to the protest, so he simply said that he had benefited much from the trip.
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