After hearing that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) had been shot in Tainan, many supporters in Kaohsiung who had intended to attend a campaign rally that was to be held in that city yesterday went instead to the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) campaign headquarters and watched television coverage of the incident.
Supporters clustered around the headquarters condemned the violence and said they felt angry when they heard about the shooting.
"Once I heard the news I raced [to the campaign headquarters] to find out about President Chen's condition," a Kaohsiung resident surnamed Lin said.
"I feel so sorry that violence has interfered with the election. We should denounce violence and protect our democracy," Lin said.
"Our support for Chen will only be consolidated," Lin said.
When TV stations reported that Chen was not seriously hurt and was being treated in a hospital, the audience clapped, waved their campaign flags and cheered, saying "A-bian (
Supporters concerned about Chen and Lu repeatedly telephoned the DPP's campaign headquarters to inquire into their condition, and many supporters sent flowers to be passed on to the pair.
As of press time, many supporters were still gathered at the DPP's headquarters and appeared unwilling to leave.
Other supporters gathered at the Kaohsiung Municipal Cultural Center, which was to have been the location of a massive campaign rally last night, to pray for Chen and Lu. Many of the supporters brought flashlights and sang songs to express their concern about the pair's condition.
At 8pm last night, Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (
"I know you are all very much concerned about President Chen's condition, as am I," Hsieh said.
"But I hope everyone can keep a cool head waiting for everything to become clear. Do not forget to cast your scared ballot tomorrow," he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching