Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday defended the bloody crackdown on student protesters occupying the Executive Yuan from Sunday evening through early Monday morning as a necessary measure, while rejecting the protesters’ call to withdraw the cross-strait service trade pact or suspend its review until legislation to monitor cross-strait agreements is set up.
While expressing regret over the injuries suffered by both protesters and police, Jiang defended the police action as “necessary.”
“As the protesters were trying to take over the Executive Yuan, we had to ask the police to take harsh measures to disperse them. Officers and protesters were injured and, according to data provided by the National Police Agency, a total of 174 officers and protesters were injured, with more officers than protesters being hurt,” Jiang told a press conference at the Executive Yuan yesterday morning.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“I would like to express my deep regret about the protest that got out of control, and the ensuing forced eviction, which was necessary,” he said.
The premier said he was open to the idea of setting up legislation that would monitor cross-strait agreements, but he would not withdraw the service trade agreement from the legislature or suspend its legislative review.
Responding to Jiang’s comments, a representative of the student protests, Shih I-lun (施懿倫), said the premier’s remarks were “meaningless” and “insincere.”
Photo: CNA
“Jiang has been making similar meaningless comments for a week, since he came to the Legislative Yuan on Saturday [to talk to the protesters]. It doesn’t make any sense to me when he says that he supports legislation to monitor cross-strait agreements, but also says that the service trade pact should not be monitored by the law,” Shih said.
As for Jiang’s defense of the violent crackdown, Shih said that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Jiang should take full responsibility for the incident.
“The occupation was largely peaceful, with demonstrators staging a sit-in, chanting slogans. Violence only broke out when police, following Jiang’s order, starting the heavy crackdown on peaceful demonstrators,” Shih said.
Photo: Sung Hsiao-hai, Taipei Times
Jiang held the press conference after the student-led occupation movement earlier called on the public to attend an open-ended rally in front of the Presidential Office tomorrow afternoon.
According to Taipei City Zhongzheng First Precinct Police Chief Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧), the event organizers have applied for a permit for a rally of 100,000 people and the application has been approved. However, participants are required to disperse by midnight, he added.
Meanwhile, although a number of images, video clips and witness accounts have surfaced about police officers beating up protesters and reporters with batons and shields, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Chun-ching (陳純敬) and National Police Agency Deputy Director-General Tsai Chun-chang (蔡俊章) insisted yesterday that the police “gently” removed protesters occupying the Executive Yuan.
“It is true that 55 protesters were wounded, but the injuries were caused by the pulling and shoving that occurred when they resisted officers’ attempts to remove them,” Tsai said.
Asked about reports of police forcing reporters to leave and beating them, Chen said they asked members of the media to leave to protect them.
“If there is evidence that the police attacked reporters, we will launch an investigation,” he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS