A college student was arrested and charged with violating the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) yesterday after heckling Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強).
Hu was attending a forum at National Chung Hsing University on the merger of Taichung City and County and development of the new city — Greater Taichung — in relation to a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China.
As Hu wrapped up his speech and was preparing to leave, two students shouted “traitor to Taiwan” (賣台奸) at Hu.
PHOTO: CNA
Security quickly stopped the two and detained them. They handed one of the students, surnamed Cheng, over to Taichung police for questioning after finding a boxcutter in his pocket. The other student, surnamed Yang, accompanied Cheng to the police station.
Police said Cheng is a junior student of computer science at Asia University, while Yang is a history student at National Chung Hsing University.
Cheng was released from the police station at about 4pm in the company of his father.
Yang told reporters outside the police station that they heckled Hu because they were unhappy with the content of his speech.
Cheng had a boxcutter on his person because he needs it for his part-time work, Yang said.
Yang said that he and Cheng were members of the Greater Taichung Youth Association — a pro-independence group.
Hu told a press conference in the afternoon that Cheng’s father had “apologized to me and said he hoped I would not file a lawsuit against his son.”
“I will not file a lawsuit,” Hu said, adding: “I respect different opinions, but students should behave properly. Young people should think more about their actions.”
Cheng’s father also went to Asia University yesterday afternoon to ask the school not to expel his son.
The university said it would arrange counseling for Cheng, but if he were later convicted of a crime, the university would hold a disciplinary meeting.
Meanwhile, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) yesterday expressed optimism about an ECFA, saying it would happen in the “very near future.”
The administration plans to sign the pact in the first half of the year. Beijing has said it hoped to see it happen in May or June. Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) told the legislature yesterday that the second round of official talks on the deal would likely take place around March 22.
Siew said that as Taiwan no longer enjoys the advantage of cheap labor, it has to focus on services.
The government’s goal is to build Taiwan into a regional or global operation center for all industries and a springboard to the Chinese and other markets, he said.
“Taiwan must remove trade barriers, so the government has proposed an ECFA, which will be signed in the very near future,” Siew told an investment forum in Taipei yesterday morning.
Once an ECFA is signed, Siew said the next step was to integrate the Southeast Asian market to facilitate the signing of free-trade agreements with other countries.
Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) yesterday rejected a proposal by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), backed by the Democratic Progressive Party caucus, to establish a legislative task force to supervise cross-strait affairs.
In a statement, Lai said the council fully respects the legislature’s right to oversee cross-strait policy and would continue reporting to it about the ECFA’s negotiation process.
However, she said the legislature already had a sound mechanism in place to keep the council in check.
Lai also said that an ECFA would steer clear of sovereignty and political issues.
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