Amid growing outrage over China's "anti-secession" legislation, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announced yesterday that it will ask the government to make March 14 -- the date the law was passed -- "Anti-aggression Day," to remind people of the looming peril.
The DPP reached the resolution in its weekly Central Standing Committee meeting yesterday afternoon. DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) had announced the decision earlier in the day when he attended a seminar on the impact of the Chinese legislation, saying setting aside a day is a way to unite the will of the Taiwanese people.
"China's anti-secession law violates the UN Charter and sabotages peace in the Taiwan Strait. It is an invasive action that is spurned by all people of Taiwan," Su said. "I will ask our legislative caucus to propose a motion to make March 14 `Anti-Aggression Day.'"
Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) echoed Su's suggestion when responding to lawmakers' questions in the the Legislative Yuan.
"Having a memorial day to highlight Taiwan's determination to defend its sovereignty is not a bad idea," Hsieh said. "But I think the name of the day needs to be discussed and it could not be a red-letter day."
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) suggested making March 14 a memorial day on Monday.
Meanwhile, the DPP has ordered its party branches and legislators to mobilize supporters for the March 26 protest against China's "anti-secession" law.
"The DPP's goal is to get at least 200,000 people to participate in the march," DPP Secretary-General Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) said. "This would be a small part of the turnout. We hope this massive march will be an unprecedented one that unites different groups of people in Taiwan."
Lee said that "democracy, peace and defending Taiwan" will be the theme of the march, adding that the pro-independence groups' long-term goal of "correcting the nation's official name and making a new constitution for the nation" would not be a theme.
Whether President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will join the march was a question that DPP officials heard all day yesterday. Su said that Chen has made up his own mind about attending.
"I believe that President Chen will stand in the best position on that day," Su said.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun said whether or not Chen attends the demonstration is not important.
"What counts is the presentation of the Taiwanese people's resolution," Yu 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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