Angered by China's hard line against democracy in Hong Kong, an estimated 60,000 people waved candles, sang and chanted yesterday night to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.
"Hong Kong should be democratic," university student Rocker Tsui said at an annual vigil that was highly charged by the recent bitter dispute over the territory's political future. "Hong Kong people should be ruling Hong Kong ourselves."
"The people's republic should be for the people, not for killing the people," said a woman who identified herself only by the surname Pau at yesterday night's rally in a sprawling downtown park. A monument was set up that said: "Democracy's heroes stand forever."
Hong Kong people have grown increasingly frustrated and unhappy with Beijing.
"I wish we had a choice," said teacher Pat Sy. "Democracy is good for people. It's more important than the economy."
The Tiananmen Square vigil attracted numerous ordinary citizens, elderly people and young couples who brought small children so they could teach them about China's crackdown.
People waved banners yesterday night demanding that China reverse its official explanation of Tiananmen Square by admitting mistakes.
"This year it's important for people to show they will not be silenced," said Law Yuk-kai, director of the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, a non-governmental organization.
The Hong Kong event was the only commemoration of the Tiananmen events on Chinese soil.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)