Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday dared a member of the pro-unification Concentric Patriotism Association to “try that again and see what happens,” after seeing a video apparently showing the woman kicking at a police officer outside the Taipei 101 building.
The video clip, posted on YouTube on Thursday, stoked public ire, with netizens calling on the new mayor to make good on a campaign promise to rein in the group, which is known for its opposition to the Falun Gong movement.
Ko said the nation should not be controlled by big corporations or people who resort to violence.
Photo: YouTube
The clip, titled: “Please have them arrested: a true record of the Concentric Patriotism Association’s insane attack on Jan. 19,” shows association member Zhang Xiuye (張秀葉) carrying a Chinese national flag, shouting and kicking at a police officer.
“So I kicked you? Go ahead and sue me,” Zhang says while kicking at an officer standing in front of her.
She turns to the camera and adds: “Sue me, you coward.”
“I will keep persecuting the pigs no matter what,” she yells.
“It would be no use for you to replace even 10 Xinyi District (信義) police chiefs,” she says, in an apparent reference to Ko’s pre-election public admonition of former Xinyi District police chief Lee Te-wei (李德威), who applied for early retirement soon after Ko was sworn in as mayor.
Ko had threatened to fire Lee, saying the police department needed to prevent the association from attacking Falun Gong practitioners, who often stage sedentary demonstrations outside Taipei 101, which is a popular destination for tourists from China.
“I don’t know where you pigs came from,” Zhang says in the video, apparently in response to comments from people looking on.
“I was sent by the Chinese Communist Party [CCP],” she says. “Is Taipei 101 the only place where the CCP could send its people?”
“[Do you think] the CCP has no money?” she says. “I have tons. I can station my people all over Taiwan.”
Association head Zhou Qinjun (周慶峻) can be seen in the clip carrying a video camera.
“This is a Chinese place,” he says.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS