About 100 people marched in Taipei yesterday, demanding that the government amend the law to ensure the rights and well-being of pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters if they come to Taiwan.
The march, organized by International Socialist Forward (ISF), which began in front of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) headquarters, headed past Taipei Railway Station and the Ximending (西門町) area before ending in front of the Legislative Yuan.
Participants called on the DPP to grant Hong Kong protesters political asylum by amending the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例).
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
More than 7,000 protesters have been arrested in Hong Kong, including about 1,000 who face criminal charges, since the anti-extradition, pro-democracy protests began last year, and about 500 have been accused of committing the offense of riot, which carries a prison sentence of more than 10 years, ISF spokesperson Vincent Hsu (許偉育) said.
During the campaigns for the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections, the DPP promoted slogans backing Hong Kong protesters, but it has yet to take any real action since winning the elections, he said.
Amending the act, allocating a budget and establishing transparent application channels are needed so that Taiwan can provide asylum for Hong Kongers protesting against the totalitarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party, Hsu said.
Hsu rode on a truck during the march, shouting slogans such as “Bring down Emperor Xi,” in reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and “Amend the law immediately to protect Hong Kong protesters.”
One Hong Kong resident, surnamed Cheung (張), said he fled to Taiwan on a travel visa, which permits a stay of up to six months, meaning that if the situation in Hong Kong does not improve before his visa expires, he would have no choice but to flee to another country.
Protesters wanted to put colored sticky notes with their appeals on the Legislative Yuan’s main gate, but police deployed barricades to keep protesters away from the gate and the building.
After police rejected the protesters’ requests to remove the barricades, the notes were put on the barricades instead.
Additional reporting by CNA
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS