The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday mobilized nearly 500,000 people from southern Taiwan to march in Kaohsiung's streets to campaign for President Chen Shui-bian's (
"This is the last battle between native power and alien authority," former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said during last night's rally. "This will be the end for those conservative forces in Taiwan, who have irrationally attacked President Chen -- the son of Taiwan -- in their attempt to steal back political power."
Commenting on the pan-blue camp's rally yesterday for opposing Chen Shui-bian, Lee said that the Taiwanese people have had enough of the conservative forces echoing China with their threats.
"Their influence will be completely eliminated, because the waves of democracy are unstoppable and will spread in each generation," Lee said. "We should not be scared by the final flailings of the alien authority. We must unite and strengthen our resolution to sweep it away from Taiwan."
Lee's remarks and appeals earned excited applause from rally participants and brought the rally to a climax.
The DPP's heavyweights also made speeches to encourage supporters to safeguard their hard-won power, as embodied by Chen's administration, saying that a completely democratic Taiwan will be the ultimate hope for China.
"Only with the success of the referendum can the entire world realize what Taiwan's people really want," said Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). "Only the success of Taiwan's referendum can be a beacon for the people of China toward a democratic future."
To taunt the pan-blue camp's vice presidential candidate, James Soong (
"Unless Soong is willing to kneel to the Beijing authority and ask China to withdraw its ballistic missiles targeted at Taiwan, then we have no idea why a politician should have to kneel or cry so much," Hsieh said.
Countless supporters gathered in Kaohsiung beginning at noon yesterday and launched parades from four locations.
The contingent of marchers crowded streets and yelled slogans such as "Believe in the People and Believe in Taiwan" and "Vote for A-bian." They waved banners, flags and placards to express their support for Chen and the referendum. Even teams of motorcycles and cars joined the march, lending the rally a carnival-like atmosphere of chaos and excitement.
"Our 228 Hand-in-Hand rally was like a carnival to open our minds and invite everyone to guard Taiwan," Chen said. "But the pan blues at their 313 Rally just made fists and showed angry faces.
"2000 saw the historic peaceful transfer of power. Now we are going to see another historic event in realizing the referendum," Chen said.
"The 228 Hand-in-hand rally showed how Taiwanese love their country ... Taiwan's democracy can never be defeated by China's authoritarianism, Taiwan's referendum cannot be defeated by China's missiles," Chen said.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS