Up to 2,000 retired soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have staged protests in Beijing, a police officer and a foreign Web site said yesterday, just days after large-scale anti-Japanese street rallies nationwide.
The PLA protest, at the west gate of the General Political Department of the PLA, was apparently over the army's poor retirement and social security benefits, a police officer at the Changqiao police station told reporters.
"There were a lot of people out there," the policeman said, declining to give his name. "They are not there now, but this morning there were still some people but they were taken away."
According to the Epoch Times, an overseas Web site, the protest began Monday evening and continued through to Tuesday with 2,000 soldiers gathering at the offices just west of the Communist Party's leadership compound of Zhongnanhai.
Hundreds of police descended on the area to ensure calm, it said.
Traffic in the area, which is known for the picturesque hutongs or traditional courtyard houses, was snarled throughout the day.
China has seen a growing number of protests in recent months, with millions of laid off workers and tens of millions of rural migrant workers increasingly expressing dissatisfaction over a lack of economic opportunity in the booming economy.
While the government appeared to encourage the noisy anti-Japanese rallies last weekend, one of its worst fears is seeing them spill over into general social discontent, analysts say.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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