About 500 protesters demonstrated on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei yesterday, vowing to recall President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and lawmakers in the pan-green camp.
The protesters rallied around several themes, accusing Tsai of rigging the Jan. 11 presidential election, that she “bought” her doctorate at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and that Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers who pander to her should be recalled.
Democracy Watch Alliance convener Huang Cheng-chung (黃正忠) said that if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) does not take action on the death of KMT Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Hsu Kun-yuan (許崑源), he would quit the party.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Hsu, who strongly supported Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), was found dead after falling from his 17th-floor apartment in Kaohsiung on the night of June 6, several hours after the city’s voters cast their ballots in favor of recalling Han.
Huang said that Hsu died a wrongful death, and that yesterday’s rally sought in part to redress the injustice perpetrated against him.
If the KMT “does not have the guts,” he would leave the party and run in the Kaohsiung mayoral by-election to avenge Hsu, said Huang, who is from Kaohsiung.
China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) chairman Chang An-le (張安樂), who also joined the demonstration, said that Hsu was one of the two politicians in the pan-blue camp that he respected the most — the other one being Jenn Lann Temple (鎮瀾宮) chairman Yen Ching-piao (顏清標).
Han singlehandedly saved the KMT in the 2018 nine-in-one local elections with his rising popularity, but KMT heavyweights, including former KMT chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), brought him down for their own gain, he said, adding that Han, who ran as the KMT’s presidential candidate in January, could have brought eight years of peace to the Taiwan Strait had he been elected.
“KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) asked us not to initiate revenge recalls, but that is exactly what we are going to do,” retired Taipei City University of Science and Technology lecturer Chou Ming-tai (周明台) said.
New Power Party Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) and Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) are DPP members in all but name, Chou added.
They, along with DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) and DPP Taoyuan City Councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇), are all “dregs” that must be tossed out, Chou said, adding that the four politicians — all vocal critics of Han — should be the targets of a revenge recall campaign.
The DPP has announced a Kaohsiung mayoral by-election for Aug. 15, just two months after Han was recalled, even though the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) states that a by-election should be held within three months of a recall vote, Chou said.
“Give the DPP an inch and it will take a mile,” he said. “The only way to topple the DPP is through a full-on clash.”
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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