Facing the Ministry of Justice’s decision that the remaining houses in Taipei’s Huaguang Community (華光社區) would be demolished within three days starting yesterday, nearly 200 residents and activists yesterday marched in the capital to protest the forced removal of Huaguang residents, while calling for “living justice.”
After setting up a simple altar with fruit on it and a wooden sign that reads: “living justice” on a corner of the old community — which they said represented a parting ceremony for the community and the death of justice — the activists bowed their heads in tribute before heading off on their march.
Dozens of young activists carried wooden doors, window frames, ladders and other furniture on their shoulders as they joined the protest march.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“We will use our bodies to show the government that what they are relentlessly tearing down are people’s homes,” a representative of the group said. “The [then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)] government tacitly agreed for people to build homes in the community after the Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan in 1949. The government also did not impose residential planning controls during the periods of migration from rural to urban areas in the 1970s, and allowed more people to move into the area, but now it wants to erase its mistakes through violent demolitions.”
Holding a portrait of his deceased mother at the protest, a 60-year-old man surnamed Chen (陳) said his mother, Cheng Yi-mei (鄭依妹), had bought a house in the community with money she made working as a domestic servant for more than 40 years. However, five years ago, aged 87, she was faced with a “cold-blooded and cruel government” that threatened to fine her for benefiting from “illegal occupation” of government land if she did not move.
“She has done nothing to deserve being continually threatened over the past five years until her death this year... Many residents had no choice but to move because they could not cope with the heavy fines, which included interest payments of 5 percent, but I will not give in, not only for my mother, but because I can’t stand a government that treats its people like dirt,” Chen said.
Ho Hui-fen (侯惠芬), whose husband was born and raised in the community, said her parents-in-law have always abided by the law, paid their water and electricity bills, and have lived in Huaguang all their lives after they came to Taiwan, so it is unfair that they are suddenly forced to move and asked to pay a fine of more than NT$6 million (US$200,000).
Another protester, a young woman in her early 20s, said she began caring about similar controversial developments, including the Losheng (Happy Life) Sanatorium (樂生療養院) and the Wenlin Yuan (文林苑) urban renewal project, when she was a university student, and joined the movement for the rights of Huaguang residents because “the government always uses empty promises of economic development to repress underprivileged groups in society.”
In front of the Executive Yuan, activists staged three dramas, expressing that the public are hurting and bleeding as the government uses lawsuits against them; are being made homeless by land expropriations and demolitions; and are dying as the government hands down heavy fines while benefiting from offering regained land to companies for commercial use.
After the parade ended on Ketagalan Boulevard near noon, activists held an impromptu protest in front of the Ministry of Justice, where clashes with police broke out with several activists forcibly removed, put on police buses and dropped off at other locations.
Four activists were required to give their personal information to police before being released.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS