Amid growing public discontent with government policies and wave after wave of public protests, law enforcement authorities are under severe strain and have on occasion gone overboard in their duties, which has prompted a large number of lawyers and human rights organizations to step in.
Almost every day in recent months, the news has been filled with footage of protesters — from university students to elderly citizens — clashing with police over a number of controversies.
For weeks now, the Legislative Yuan has been under siege, while Cabinet officials have been the targets of flash protests all over the country, their visits turning the venues into high-security zones surrounded by large police deployments. In some instances, the National Security Bureau has even stepped in. Special zones have been created where protesters are hemmed in and with growing frequency police have requested that ordinary citizens show their identity documents whenever they approach a “restricted” zone. In some cases, refusal to do so has led to a visit to the local police station.
The sense of oppression has increased and with it the fear of a return to past practices under authoritarian rule. Young men whose only crime was to wear a red T-shirt — a color associated with several civic movements — have been swarmed by police officers who suspected they were participants in a protest, when in fact they were heading for a bus station near the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters.
Other cases have been less amusing, with protesters being dragged away, arrested, harassed and physically injured. In Miaoli County, which has a particularly bad reputation, and where a German firm is erecting wind turbines, abuse by police and thugs have been especially notorious.
After observing recent developments, a large number of lawyers are saying they have seen enough and are compelled to take action. Dozens of them assembled in front of the Ministry of Justice yesterday to deliver a petition signed by as many as 1,000 lawyers, which represents about a fifth of the total in the country. Many of them are giving their time, free of charge, to defend victims of abuse by law enforcement officials and they are pressuring the government to remedy the situation. The substantial numbers are an indication of the seriousness of the situation.
However, the alarm, though justified, should be put in perspective. The majority of police officers in Taiwan are professional and kind. Efforts are also being made by the police force in Taipei to reach out to and assist foreign journalists covering recent clashes. A good number of police have also expressed sympathy for the causes behind the protests and have intervened when activists risked getting injured.
However, there are overzealous officers who are sullying the reputation of the force, and there are also signs of great pressure from above calling on police to act in ways that risk crossing certain lines.
Another development that could lead to serious problems is that the large number of protests is forcing law enforcement authorities to call upon police from outside their jurisdiction for assistance. When this happens, the bonds that have developed between protesters and police officers over months are severed, and the resultant lack of familiarity has had a demonstrable impact on the willingness of police officers to use force against activists.
As more and more police are brought in from outside, and with large protests expected this month — again over issues of land theft, forced evictions and demolitions of people’s homes — the potential for further violence and serious injuries is something that everybody involved will have to bear in mind.
What began on Feb. 28 as a military campaign against Iran quickly became the largest energy-supply disruption in modern times. Unlike the oil crises of the 1970s, which stemmed from producer-led embargoes, US President Donald Trump is the first leader in modern history to trigger a cascading global energy crisis through direct military action. In the process, Trump has also laid bare Taiwan’s strategic and economic fragilities, offering Beijing a real-time tutorial in how to exploit them. Repairing the damage to Persian Gulf oil and gas infrastructure could take years, suggesting that elevated energy prices are likely to persist. But the most
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
The Legislative Yuan on Friday held another cross-party caucus negotiation on a special act for bolstering national defense that the Executive Yuan had proposed last year. The party caucuses failed to reach a consensus on several key provisions, so the next session is scheduled for today, where many believe substantial progress would finally be made. The plan for an eight-year NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.59 billion) special defense budget was first proposed by the Cabinet in November last year, but the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers have continuously blocked it from being listed on the agenda for
On Tuesday last week, the Presidential Office announced, less than 24 hours before he was scheduled to depart, that President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned official trip to Eswatini, Taiwan’s sole diplomatic ally in Africa, had been delayed. It said that the three island nations of Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar had, without prior notice, revoked the charter plane’s overflight permits following “intense pressure” from China. Lai, in his capacity as the Republic of China’s (ROC) president, was to attend the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession. King Mswati visited Taiwan to attend Lai’s inauguration in 2024. This is the first
RSS