One day after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was accosted by a woman on stage, security was clearly tightened yesterday evening when both presidential candidate Tsai and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) showed up for a special screening of the Taiwanese movie Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (彩虹戰士:賽德克巴萊) at the Presidential Office plaza on Ketagalan Boulevard.
National Security Bureau (NSB) Director Tsai Der-sheng (蔡得勝) personally presided over security at the venue, saying he would rather “security measures are overly stringent than too lax.”
According to Taipei City Police Headquarter’s Chungcheng First Precinct, about 200 officers were dispatched to police the area around the venue, in addition to the Mobile Division sent by Taipei City Police Headquarters as back-up. Agents from the bureau and National Property Administration (NPA), were in charge of security inside the venue.
Ma, who is seeking re-election, and Tsai, did not cross paths at the event because they arrived at the -screening from different entrances and were seated in separate areas.
At 5:50pm, shortly before the premiere was scheduled to start, 50-year-old Lo Pei-chin (羅佩秦), who insists he is running in the presidential election despite not having registered, showed up with a microphone and shouted: “I am running for president and I should also be let in to see the Seediq Bale premiere.”
He was intercepted by police who escorted him to Taipei Main Station and saw him onto the High Speed Rail back to Kaohsiung.
Earlier yesterday, Tsai, -referring to Friday’s incident in which a woman rushed onto the stage and grabbed her by the arm shortly after she had finished giving a speech at an event in Greater Taichung, said the incident reflected serious security failings.
The woman, who is from China and is married to a Taiwanese, is well known in Taichung for her constant protests over a medical dispute, but was still able to directly access the stage without any security checks, Tsai said.
According to Huang Ching-fu (黃清福), a section chief at the NPA, the agency has assigned four male and two female bodyguards to Tsai, but her security detail will be expanded to 12 people daily after Nov. 21 when Tsai formally registers her presidential candidacy with the Central Election Commission.
Tsai said the NPA was not the only agency that needs to review security deployments.
All security procedures and the national security authority need to be reviewed, she said.
“The issue does not lie in how many security personnel were deployed, but in how intelligence was integrated and how the security procedures were implemented,” she said.
The bureau said yesterday that a team that will be responsible for the security for all presidential candidates was undergoing intense training, with particular focus on preventing close distance gunshots and nighttime security.
The team was expected to complete its training early next month and the bureau said it would hold a ceremony to formally announce the establishment of security details for the presidential candidates.
According to the bureau, the Special Service Center has organized four live fire exercises in Taipei, Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung. Those exercises simulate scenarios where candidates canvass the public, in a night market, on campaign stages and on foot.
The bureau added it planned to form a total of 10 security stations near candidates’ residences, campaign headquarters and places of importance nationwide.
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
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
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
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique