Actor Lin Fu-chin (林富進), better known as Andy (安迪), faces expulsion from the Entertainment Union (演藝工會) because of his speech at President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) re-election campaign rally on Saturday.
But Lin decided to resign from the union before its board could take a decision to officially revoke his membership.
"We are holding a commentary meeting tomorrow afternoon to discuss the proposal to revoke Lin's membership," said Kao Chen-peng (高振鵬), a spokesperson of the Entertainment Union, who is also an experienced actor.
In response to the possible revocation of his union membership, Lin wrote a letter to Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明), saying: "I have decided to quit on my own, in order to protest against the union's disrespect for human rights and freedom of speech."
Lin had condemned People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
"I only participated in one day of shooting for Special Report, and yet I have to put up with Soong's name-calling over and over again. I want to say `thank you' to Soong and call him `vile,'" Lin said at the rally.
In his letter to Lo, Lin said: "If I have said anything inappropriate at the rally, please produce the evidence."
"Many famous artists have shown their support for [Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman] Lien Chan (連戰) and James Soong at their campaign rallies -- why didn't any of these individuals get the boot from the union?" he said in the letter.
Lin also questions the politics of the Entertainment Union in the letter. "Many artists who showed up at Lien and Soong's campaign rallies verbally assailed President Chen in public, or even kneeled to seek voters' support, but they were never kicked out of the union. Does that infer that the union is pan-blue?" he wrote.
When asked if Lin could annul his membership on his own, Kao stated that it would be impossible.
"Lin cannot revoke his membership on his own, he has to receive a notification letter in black and white first," Kao said, adding that the union's directors have to follow several procedures before a penalty can be imposed on Lin.
"The penalty can be a simple verbal warning, a revocation of his membership or something else. We don't know for sure at this point," Kao said.
Lo stood up for Lin at a press conference yesterday. "When Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) brought a slander lawsuit against Lin and other actors for their roles in Special Report, it was a clear case of a political crackdown on the artists' right to perform. However, Yang Kuang-you (
According to a report in the Chinese-language media on Sunday, Yang was enraged by Lin's criticism, which he considered to be a personal verbal attack.
Yang said that an actor should perform with conscience and self-control.
See editorial:McCarthyism reborn amid VCD flap
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods