Nearly 100 former Hualon Group employees and their supporters staged a surprise demonstration outside the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday morning then blocked traffic for half an hour while they called on the government to assist them with their demand that their former employer issue retirement payouts.
“The government is incapable, workers’ New Year is horrible. Give us the retirement payouts we deserve,” about 100 former Hualon employees and their supporters chanted as they arrived unannounced in front of the building and sat down on the street, blocking traffic at about 10am yesterday.
“We’re not here to sabotage or threaten anyone. We are here begging for help from the government,” former Hualon employee Chen Wen-ming (陳文明) said. “As many as 400 of us are owed retirement payouts from our former employer, and according to the law, it’s the government’s job to help us pursue what we deserve, but we are not getting any actual help despite promises from officials over the past years.”
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Chen said that in the past few years the workers have sought help from the Legislative Yuan, the Control Yuan, the Executive Yuan, the Presidential Office and the Council of Labor Affairs and while representatives from those agencies all promised to help, the issue remains unresolved.
The workers were soon confronted by busloads of police officers who removed them by force not long after the protest began.
Protesters resisted and clashed with officers, leading to the arrest of Chen Wen-ming, as well as two student activists, Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) and Chen Kuang-hsuan (陳光軒).
The protest group gathered in front of Renai Road Police Station in the afternoon after learning that the three protesters were taken there after being arrested and waited until they were released.
“It saddens me to see how brutally the police have treated us and those who have supported us,” Hualon Self-Help Association president Lee Tsuei-ming (李翠明) said in front of the police station. “We are only trying to get what we were supposed to receive. It is ridiculous that the police are protecting government officials and capitalists who have repeatedly broken their promises, instead of protecting workers.”
The demonstrators soon ended their action after laying red posters with the character zhai (debt, 債) on the ground.
They said the word was meant to remind the government of the debts that were still owed to the former Hualon workers.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as