Some of the remaining members of the self-styled "Million Voices Against Corruption" campaign were outraged to discover that their headquarters on Chongqing S Road has been closed without warning and that their erstwhile leader has left the country, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday.
About 10 protesters gathered outside the locked metal door to protest on Wednesday, but were dispersed after campaign leaders called the police.
The office was closed just days after former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德), who had pledged to "imprison" himself in his apartment until President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) left office, traveled to the US on Feb. 15, reportedly for medical treatment.
Campaign spokesperson Chang Fu-chung (張富忠) said yesterday that Shih had undergone surgery for liver cancer.
Shih also plans to stop in Japan for media interviews on his way home early next month.
"The man who said he was going to `imprison' himself has instead taken his family to live happily in the US. Now where are his red-clad troops supposed to go?" one-time supporter Chu Cheng-hsien (朱成憲) asked, according to the newspaper.
Others said that the headquarters should be transformed into "Shih Ming-teh Memorial Hall."
Protesters pasted signs on the door calling Shih a "big liar" and "more vile than Chen and more shameless than [first lady] Wu Shu-jen (
The group also accused Shih of "swindling people out of their hard-earned money," by using the donations he collected to travel abroad with his wife.
However, Chang denied that Shih had used donated funds to finance the trip, and said that campaign leaders were only taking a one-week break. He said that details of how the campaign money had been spent have been posted on the group's Web site.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding