Nearly 2,000 protesters waving red and blue Taiwanese flags and chanting "shame" on Saturday called for an independent probe into Taiwan's disputed national election.
"We want a recount," retired accountant Robert Chi said as he clutched US and Taiwanese flags, apparently unaware that the president had already said there would be a recount. "We want the president to hear us. He lied."
The rally was part of a series of protests in the US that echoed protests in Taiwan. Nearly a half-million people gathered in Taipei on Saturday to protest the results of the March 20 election that opponents say was rigged by President Chen Shui-bian (
In Los Angeles, protesters from as far away as Phoenix gathered for about two hours in a parking lot in the city's bustling Chinatown neighborhood. They waved banners that said "Recount the ballots" and "Justice, truth, fairness" as music and speeches blared over loudspeakers.
Police estimated the crowd reached about 1,800 people.
"It's not a justified and fair election,'' said Terry Lee, a protest coordinator who worked for People First Party candidate James Soong (
"All the polls showed [Chen] should have lost the election," Lee said, apparently unaware that several polls indicated the race was too close to call in the weeks prior to the election.
An afternoon rally was also planned in San Francisco.
"I think they should have a whole new election," said Sherrien Shui, a Los Angeles wedding planner who was born in Taiwan.
Wearing a yellow headband that said "Justice," she compared the circumstances around the election, including the assassination attempt, to "a movie, a play, that he [Chen] directed himself."
Although pan-blue leaders have made similar claims, they have given no evidence to support such conspiracy theories.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS