Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials yesterday condemned Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers for occupying the legislative chamber for about 19 hours.
More than 20 KMT lawmakers on Sunday afternoon stormed into the legislative chamber and blocked the doors with chairs and chains, and spray painted the sentence “No endorsement for political crony Control Yuan nominees” on a wall inside the chamber.
They demanded that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) withdraw her nomination of former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Chu (陳菊) as Control Yuan president.
The occupation lasted until about noon yesterday, when DPP lawmakers entered the legislative chamber.
“A mature opposition party should present its platform on particular issues in the legislature and then work within legal means under the legislature’s rules for the party to express the viewpoints in the accorded session for deliberation,” the DPP headquarters said in a statement.
“It is regretful that the KMT still cannot disengage itself from its old habits of the one-party authoritarian rule, and undertakes such violent actions to occupy the podium of the main chamber and proper legislative procedure,” it said.
“We hope KMT members can learn to act with sense and reason, as it should be for an opposition party in a democratic nation,” it added.
“Forty years ago, the KMT indicted Chen with a death sentence; now the KMT continues to try to humiliate and boycott her,” DPP deputy secretary-general Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) wrote on social media yesterday.
Lin was referring to the Kaohsiung Incident of 1979, when pro-democracy advocates held a rally to mark International Human Rights Day in Kaohsiung on Dec. 10 in defiance of the then-KMT one-party rule. Police and military units violently cracked down on the march.
Chen, along with several leaders who later became DPP founders, were indicted on sedition charges, which were punishable by death. However, mainly due to pressure from the US, they mostly received 12-year terms.
The incident has been regarded as a watershed event for Taiwan’s democratization movement.
Lin said he is certain that Chen can fulfill the responsibilities of Control Yuan president while doubling as the head of the newly established National Human Rights Commission, because she had suffered under KMT rule, and continued to fight for human rights and democracy in Taiwan through the decades.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
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.
RSS