Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday expressed strong support for Taipei’s Zhongzheng First Police Precinct Chief Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧), who faced calls to step down over a ruling that has restricted people’s right to assemble, saying that he would not approve Fang’s verbally offered resignation.
Hau called the protest involving more than 1,000 people outside Fang’s precinct headquarters in downtown on Friday night illegal, saying the city government will not tolerate attacks on government buildings in the future.
As Taipei residents’ tolerance of illegal rallies has reached its limits, so has the strength of the police who have dealt with several rallies and protests recently, Hau said.
Photo: CNA
The crowd, unhappy with the forced dispersal of protesters outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei early Friday morning, attempted to besiege the Zhongzheng First Police Precinct that evening, sparking a tense standoff and sporadic clashes with officers for about five hours until midnight.
The protesters cited three reasons in demanding that Fang apologize and step down: They said he had reneged on his pledge to refrain from forcibly removing protesters from the square outside the Legislative Yuan, that he unilaterally withdrew the one-month permission granted to the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan on March 19 to use the road as an assembly location, and said he would never grant the group a permit for a rally.
Protesters shouted: “Fang Yang-ning you are a liar” and “Fang Yang-ning step down,” while holding posters reading “state violence” and “unconstitutional.”
Photo: Wen Yu-teh, Taipei Times
Despite a promise from Fang at 2:30am Friday that the police would not forcibly clear the area, police began picking up members of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan and moving them away from the area at 7am.
Protestors asked that Fang meet them to explain his actions.
As the number of protesters grew, hundreds of police officers were deployed to the front gate of the precinct building and riot police were placed on standby.
Some of the protesters scattered ghost money, normally seen as currency for the dead, around the precinct doors.
The standoff lasted until Fang appeared to speak to the public for the third time and said that he had offered a verbal resignation.
“If I had done anything wrong during the morning’s eviction action, I apologized sincerely. The police would grant Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan’s rally permit with leniency and I have offered my resignation to my superiors,” Fang said.
After Fang’s response, the protesters scattered slowly near midnight, but some moved to the Legislative Yuan compound and sat in front of the main entrance. About 30 stayed overnight.
Hau yesterday morning visited the police precinct to give his full backing to Fang.
He said that although the protesters caused major disturbances in the area surrounding the police headquarters, Fang’s decision to stay calm and ultimately allow protesters to disperse slowly was “commendable” and “praiseworthy.”
During the past 24 days of the student-led occupation of the legislative chamber and surrounding areas, Fang had “acted with determination” and “dealt humbly with the student movement,” Hau said.
The eviction on Friday morning was a legal and a “soft eviction,” and there was nothing inappropriate during the action, Hau said.
Hau said that although Fang offered to resign to pacify the public, he will not approve the move because “we could never give in to people who use a method of public trial to force a government official to step down,” Hau said.
He said Friday night’s offenders will be punished in accordance with the law, based on evidence gathered at the police station.
“I hoped that the people could support the police — who carry out their duties by law. We would never tolerate any assault on police precincts or government offices,” he said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people dressed in white went to the precinct yesterday afternoon to present flowers to Fang, clashing with Sunflower movement supporters.
Messages of support and sympathy for Taipei’s police force have poured in, with a Facebook page set up to back the police collecting over 180,000 “likes” in hours.
A message on the Facebook page asked supporters to say “thank you” to police officers, saying that many had come under stress recently.
In addition to the Facebook attention, flowers were sent to the precinct headquarters yesterday morning by citizens and officials.
Responding to reporters’ questions, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that he “absolutely supports” police actions made in accordance with the law.
Fang’s wife, Chiu Tzu-chen (邱子珍), head of the Women’s and Children’s Protection Division at Taipei City Police Department, said that her husband just followed orders given by his superiors because “we are both civil servants.”
“We will do whatever our superiors want, according to their instructions,” Chiu said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary