The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday demonstrated in front of the Presidential Office Building to protest President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), accusing him of breaking away from the institutionalized cross-strait negotiation system, while vowing to launch a recall campaign.
Joined by dozens of taxis, protesters held placards condemning Ma for his decision to meet with Xi in Singapore tomorrow and calling on Ma to resign.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said Ma’s rushed decision to meet with Xi has breached the institutionalized mechanism on cross-strait exchanges.
Photo: Edward Lau, Reuters
“When the historical cross-strait negotiations between the Taiwan’s then-Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) and China’s then-Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits chairman Wang Daohan (汪道涵) took place in Singapore in 1993, I was Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) minister and Ma was my deputy,” Huang told the crowd. “The preparations for the meeting took a long time, with one preparatory meeting after another, while what to talk about and what would be the main objectives were clearly set.”
Huang said that the meeting only happened after both sides approved the issues to be discussed.
Transparency was the key to institutionalized negotiations, but this time no one knows what issues are to be discussed during the Ma-Xi meeting and the decision was a rushed one, Huang said.
“Ma said that he wanted to institutionalize cross-strait summits at the top level, but instead what he is doing now is breaking the institutionalized mechanism for cross-strait talks,” Huang said.
TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) said the TSU caucus would immediately launch a campaign to recall the president.
“The law stipulates that a presidential recall proposal has to be endorsed by one-quarter of the legislature. At the moment, three TSU lawmakers have signed the endorsement and we will try to reach the threshold of 29 as soon as possible,” Lin said.
TSU Legislator Chou Ni-an (周倪安) said that when the legislature reviewed MAC’s budget proposals for the next fiscal year, MAC Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said nothing about Ma’s planned meeting with Xi.
“We put forward a motion to restart the review of MAC budgets,” she said.
At 10am, when a press conference started inside the Presidential Office Building, the dozens of taxis at the demonstration blew their horns in unison in protest.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique