Opposition parties and civic groups are working together on a full-scale protest that includes legislative boycotts, a “siege” of the legislature and street rallies after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) cut short the review of the cross-strait service trade agreement on Monday and sent the pact directly to the plenary session for its second reading.
At about 9pm, more than 300 students and demonstrators broke from the rally outside the Legislative Yuan, broke into the compound and took over the podium on the legislative floor.
The police did not evacuate the protesters.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times.
The protesters staged a sit-in in the assembly hall where lawmakers hold meetings, saying that they would stay there until Friday and until the KMT withdraw the agreement from the plenary.
The protesters called on supporters to bring supplies to the site.
The KMT caucus has breached a previously reached inter-party consensus that the pact — which experts said could severely affect local industries — must be reviewed clause-by-clause in the Legislative Yuan, which has infuriated the public, the opposition said, adding that the move amounted to contempt of parliament and a betrayal of democratic principles.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
In response, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) boycotted the Legislative Yuan’s plenary session yesterday, forcing Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to announce an adjournment for party negotiations.
Opposition parties vowed to continue boycotting the plenary until the KMT retracts the agreement.
With President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration and the KMT showing no signs of retracting the agreement, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said the party would launch a series of “countermeasures” against the KMT over the next three days.
Photo: Mandy Cheng, AFP
The DPP said that it would propose a “better agreement” than the current service trade pact in its Central Standing Committee meeting today and convene a meeting with representatives from various industries and civic groups tomorrow to discuss the establishment of an alliance to monitor the review of the agreement.
In addition, the party plans to launch a campaign to “besiege” the Legislative Yuan.
“Our goal to review the pact clause-by-clause and to renegotiate the deal remains unchanged,” Su said.
The TSU is mobilizing its supporters and industry representatives to “besiege” the Legislative Yuan on Friday, with TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) accusing the KMT of breaching the consensus, which Huang called unacceptable.
Speaking to reporters after the plenary session yesterday, Wang said that although the KMT’s handling of the review surprised him, he would not speculate on what the pan-blue and pan-green camps would do next week.
While another round of inter-party negotiation is needed, “the atmosphere is not appropriate for both camps to sit down and talk at this moment,” Wang said.
At separate press conferences, DPP caucus director-general Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said that the party would continue boycotting plenary sessions until the KMT offers a concession, while DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅) insisted that the agreement should stay in the committee and be reviewed line-by-line.
Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) of the DPP posted on Facebook that he supported an “all-out protest” in collaboration with the public against the KMT.
Dozens of civic group representatives and students, who have had been camping outside the Legislative Yuan since Monday, stepped up their mobilization efforts, urging the public to join the sit-in and an overnight rally to voice their opposition to what they called the KMT’s “brutal” decision that had completely ignored the interests of the Taiwanese.
DPP lawmakers Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) and Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) also staged a 70-hour hunger strike, which began at noon yesterday and would last until 10am on Friday, when a plenary session is scheduled to commence.
The protest in front of the Legislative Yuan would continue until Friday, according to Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強), convener of the Democratic Front Against the Cross-strait Trade in Services Agreement and spokesperson of the rally.
Beginning yesterday morning, the police have reinforced deployment and have installed a road block around the Legislative Yuan compound to keep the protesters from entering the compound and to prepare for the planned siege on Friday.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
RSS