A university professor who was arrested on Tuesday during a protest over the forced demolition of houses in Dapu Borough (大埔) in Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南) accused national security authorities of instructing police to use excessive force against protesters and urged President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to stop enforcing repressive controls over its people.
“Most of Taipei City’s police officers were nice to me and I believe they were forced by national security authorities to handle the protest with violence. It’s the national security authorities that are uncivilized,” National Chengchi University professor Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮) said at the Taipei City Council.
Hsu was pulled away by police officers on Tuesday afternoon while shouting the slogan: “[You] knock down houses in Dapu today; [we] tear down the government tomorrow” at Ma’s motorcade as the president arrived at the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Tacheng Street in Taipei.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The police dragged him to a police car and sent him to the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office, saying that he had violated the Public Safety Act (公共危險罪).
He was released at about 10:30pm because of what police said was a “lack of evidence.”
Showing bruises on his arms, Hsu said he cooperated with the police officers who asked him to leave the restricted area during the protest. However, the police arrested him and pulled him away as he walked out of the area while chanting the slogan.
While he was being dragged away, one police officer questioned the rude and violent acts against him, asking another officer to stop such violent treatment, Hsu said.
“Police officers in Taipei City are quite civilized. I don’t understand why President Ma and national security authorities cannot let the police officers enforce laws with dignity,” he said.
To support Hsu and other protesters’ rights to freedom of speech and assembly, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City caucus urged the government to adjust its handling of protests and stop creating tension between the police and the public.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said the Taipei City Police Department’s Datong branch had received orders to carry out a regular traffic control plan at the health ministry. However, it received an emergency instruction on Tuesday morning to expand restricted areas. The department’s Zhongcheng First branch also sent police officers to the site after the national security authorities decided to enhance security measures.
“The Ma administration has turned the nation into a police state, with Ma sending national security personnel to arrest whoever protests against him,” she said.
Undaunted, a group of students held a protest across the street from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters yesterday afternoon.
Carrying placards that read: “Treacherous government forcefully demolished houses in Dapu,” the protesters shouted at Ma’s motorcade as he arrived at the KMT headquarters to preside over the party’s Central Standing Committee.
Police officers set up fences in front of the buildings to keep protesters from getting close to the party headquarters, and pulled a young woman away as she tried to enter the building.
A protester who wore a mask accused the police of violating the public’s rights to use the roads by blocking traffic around Bade Road, and questioned the legitimacy of such excessive policing.
“There are more than 100 police officers here today to handle such a small group of people. In a democratic society, the government should be afraid of its people, not the other way around,” he said.
Ma later left the party headquarters without commenting on the protest.
Commenting on the clashes and arrests on Tuesday, the DPP said the government’s behavior has reached the level of state violence and has reminded Taiwanese of the KMT’s authoritarian past.
In addition to Hsu, National Taiwan University students Hung Chung-yen (洪崇晏) and Lu Chih-hung (盧其宏) were arrested by police.
“I cannot describe how angry the DPP is with an administration that has betrayed its own pledge, demolishing houses in Miaoli when the villagers were protesting in Taipei and deploying police to arrest whoever shouts slogans along the president’s way,” DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said.
“It does not take surveys from international institutions to tell us that democracy in Taiwan has been backsliding. We can tell from what we saw that the ghost of the KMT’s authoritarian and dictatorial past is back,” he added.
DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said National Security Bureau Director Tsai Der-sheng (蔡得勝) should be held responsible for stepping beyond his authority by ordering violent measures against civilian protesters, which Lin said was illegal and unconstitutional.
The DPP also announced it was organizing a group of volunteer lawyers to provide legal assistance to villagers in Dapu, as well as those who suffered from the government’s injustice.
Meanwhile, the DPP caucus yesterday demanded that the Taipei City Police Department submit the roster of police officers on duty on Tuesday within a week and said it would file lawsuits against law enforcement officials.
Speaking at a press conference, DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡), a former judge, said prosecutors’ release of all detainees without bail showed that the police had abused their power and made arrests without sufficient evidence.
Former premier Yu Shyi-kun, who formerly served as Yilan County commissioner, said that while the government always loved to say it “administers by law,” it should not administer by state violence.
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
More than 8,000 people took part in a rally in Taipei yesterday to express support for more defense spending, after the opposition slashed the Cabinet’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.6 billion) special defense budget and capped it at NT$780 billion. The demonstrators urged the Cabinet to propose another bill. Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said the main problem of the passed budget plan is the removal of funding for critical items, not just that the total amount is smaller. Critical budget items included purchasing or developing uncrewed vehicles, Strong Bow (強弓) missile systems, additional ammunition, artificial intelligence-powered combat systems and Taiwan-US
RSS