High supporter numbers, leaks in the police department and assistance from former police officers are enabling protesters to run effective “guerrilla” campaigns, despite increased security around President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), pension reform opponents said yesterday, adding that “mobile human wall” tactics to keep them away from Tsai’s motorcade would not work.
Protesters have promised to “shadow” Tsai following the passage of pension reforms last month and have had some success in breaking through an increased police presence around the president, including briefly halting her motorcade outside National Defense University in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) on Thursday last week.
“There are only two roads in and out of the university, so where could she go? The police cannot change the roads,” said Keng Chi-wen (耿繼文), a former director of the National Police Agency’s Internal Affairs Office, who has been one of the most prominent former police officers participating in protests.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Protesters stood along both sides of Zhongyang N Road, moving in front of Tsai’s motorcade as it approached the university entrance before being pushed aside by police.
An increased police presence and barricades around Tsai to keep protesters from getting too close when she arrives at a destination means that “guerrilla” tactics have been used to get close to her, with former police officers who are familiar with presidential security helping show protesters how to congregate and scatter along potential motorcade routes, Keng said.
“We are experts, so it is easy for us to predict the president’s route and backup route,” he said, adding that protesters also often receive leaked information from police.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
“We can make quick observations and then divide our forces along potential routes, so there is a chance of blocking her regardless of which way they drive,” he said.
“It might be different if Tsai was just a movie star who could come and go quietly, but presidential security leaves an extremely obvious footprint,” Taiwan Policemen Association executive director Chen Chih-chieh (陳志傑) said, adding that protesters relay signs of police reconnaissance and barricading via social media to predict the president’s movements and mobilize quickly.
“There are different standard operating procedures for the president compared with the vice president or a minister, so we can predict who is coming based on police preparations,” Chen said.
Reports that police plan to begin deploying a “mobile human wall” to counter protesters’ tactics drew disparaging remarks.
“Even if they block off one point, we will just catch Tsai later on,” Keng said.
“Even if the wall succeeds, the sight of policemen being forced to run around would still be embarrassing to Tsai, which is our objective,” Chen said.
It is possible Tsai might be faced with a car suddenly “breaking down” in front of her motorcade, Yunlin County Retired Police Officers Association executive director Lai Kun-yu (賴坤柚) said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS