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.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS