Scuffles broke out at the legislature yesterday before Premier Lin Chuan (林全) was scheduled to brief legislators on the budget for the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
In one of the more dramatic moments Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) slapped Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) across the face.
Legislators in the morning signed up to speak about the program during a legislative discussion preceding the first meeting of the second extraordinary legislative session, which began yesterday.
Photo: CNA
KMT secretary-general Lin Wei-chou (林為洲), the last KMT legislator to speak, gave KMT legislators a cue and they flocked to the front of the chamber to occupy the podium where Lin Chuan was scheduled to make his presentation.
Sounding air horns, blowing whistles and brandishing placards, KMT legislators said that the program, which has a budget of NT$420 billion (US$13.82 billion), would cause future generations to be mired in debt.
“Illegal budgeting. Block the review. Money-blowing premier. Lin Chuan step down,” they shouted.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) tried to quell the protest by admonishing the KMT legislators, but his efforts were in vain.
A skirmish broke out between Chiu and Hsu when Chiu approached the KMT legislators and began pulling at a microphone that KMT caucus vice secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) was holding.
Hsu — in an apparent attempt to separate the two — joined the fray and soon became entangled with Chiu.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Hsu slapped Chiu across the face. Chiu responded by pulling her hair.
The two were separated by their colleagues, but that did not stop Chiu from scuffling with other KMT legislators, including Lee, KMT caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) and KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順).
The KMT caucus formed a blockade around the podium, but Su attempted to let Lin Chuan make the presentation nonetheless, prompting KMT lawmakers start throwing brochures, water balloons and fake banknotes in the premier’s direction.
Seeing that the proceedings had been paralyzed, Su advised the premier to leave, before announcing that the meeting would be reconvened today.
Hsu later said that her actions were meant to protect Lee and were inadvertent, and that she would like to apologize to society.
She said that she would be mindful of her interactions with her DPP colleagues from now on, but refused to apologize to Chiu, who she said had acted in a “provocative” manner.
The KMT’s “barbaric” boycott “belittled the legislature and bullied Taiwan,” Chiu said on Facebook.
Following a halt in the proceedings, Su in the afternoon session hastily put the DPP’s proposed agenda to a vote, which secured the majority backing of the DPP caucus.
The issues to be discussed during the extraordinary session included the Cabinet’s budget proposals for projects under the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program and a proposed amendment to the Mining Act (礦業法).
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS