Today's mass protest against China's "Anti-Secession" Law was a focus of attention in the legislature yesterday, with pan-green legislators dressing up to urge the public to attend the march and pan-blue legislators voicing their criticism about the rally.
Pan-green lawmakers also handed out "peace candy," held a mock banquet and shouted slogans in the legislature's assembly hall.
Attention-seeking activities began yesterday morning with the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) inviting reporters to a mock feast of dishes whose names sounded similar to those of China's top leaders, including President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), former president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) and former premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基).
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
As part of the pan-green camp's efforts to encourage a huge turnout today, female pan-green legislators handed out "peace candy."
Meanwhile, their pan-blue colleagues were busy criticizing the event.
"Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) taking to the streets [today] -- that demonstrates that he does not have the ability to handle cross-strait relations," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Chi (蘇起) said.
"All the people are paying for Chen to take to the streets. The supposed 2 million people march, will cost more than NT$1 billion," KMT legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said.
At a press conference yesterday afternoon, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus showed off the placards and buttons it has made for the rally.
In addition to miniature flags, march participants will be provided with blow-up batons in green, red, blue, white and orange printed with the slogan "Democracy, Peace and Defend Taiwan."
The colors, the caucus said, were chosen to show that not only "green" Taiwanese, but all the Taiwanese people, are standing up for the rally.
Highlighting organizers' hopes that the rally will draw widespread international attention, the placards were written in English, Japanese, French and Chinese.
DPP Chairman Su Cheng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that during the march, participants would be lead in singing five songs, including We Shall Overcome in English.
Su, however, refused to say which of the 10 march routes President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would take, due to security concerns.
The rally, Su emphasized, is about the people, not the president.
"However, the president has made a date with the people to meet on Ketagelan Boulevard. Everyone should come in person to hear and see for themselves," said Su, who appeared at the press conference dressed in his "protest battle gear," which included a digital camera, his personal recorder and a digital camera phone so he could record today's events.
With good weather forecast for today, the DPP caucus urged participants to dress suitably and bring plenty of water.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires