Anxious to avoid a repeat of last week's turmoil at CKS International Airport, police last night deployed 3,000 officers in a successful bid to prevent protesters from occupying the airport as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) returned from China.
Protesters who tried to sneak into the airport were taken away, including several pan-green camp legislators and a number of unidentified people in black clothes suspected to be gangsters supportive of the pan-blue camp.
There were sporadic tussles at the airport and on the freeway leading to the airport where police stopped motorists who attempted to protest Lien's return. No major injuries were reported.
PHOTO: AP
A failed independent legislative candidate was arrested on arrival at the terminal for allegedly threatening the peace.
"I didn't break the law," Ke Tze-hai (
Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (
Four prosecutors were also on hand to issue arrest warrants for any person who protested inside the airport.
Barbed-wire barricades were erected on roads leading to the airport and vehicles were checked by police to prevent protesters from reaching the terminal. Police also guarded Lien's residence and KMT headquarters in Taipei.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday called on around 100 party members to support lawmakers who wore masks bearing the words "protest" and "Lien sells out Taiwan." Their attempt to stage a sit-in inside the terminal was blocked by the police.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Lin Kuo-ching (
As they were led away, the legislators shouted, "The police are being unfair! We have broken no laws!"
DPP Legislator Wang Shih-chien (王世堅), who was heavily involved in last week's protest, was stopped on the Nankan Interchange long before reaching the airport and argued with police. Wang continued to the airport, however, and protested the detention of his colleagues.
Several unidentified people in black clothing carrying batons attempted to enter the airport and were detained.
Lien was received at the airport by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
In a short statement, Lien recounted the highlights of his trip but did not reveal any new details on his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Lien said he would make details of his trip known over the next few days. He concluded his brief statement with a reminder to support the KMT in the National Assembly elections on May 14.
Lien then returned to his home without incident under an escort of more than 500 police.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS