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.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft