More than 1,000 Taiwanese-Americans converged on Washington Friday to attend a mass rally to protest China's "Anti-Secession" law, in an effort to raise the visibility in the US capitol of the worldwide movement against the law by expatriate Taiwanese.
Taiwanese-Americans from throughout the country were preparing to hold a rally yesterday in front of the Capitol Building, followed by a protest in front of the Chinese embassy a few miles away.
Taiwanese-Americans are "passionately opposed to the law," Bob In-yu Yang, the chief spokesman of the 17 groups of Taiwanese-Americans sponsoring the rally, said at a press conference Friday.
He called the rally an "expression of solidarity among Taiwanese-Americans against the Anti-Secession Law."
Rather than using the official Chinese title for the law, the groups have termed their activities a "Rally Against Chinese Annexation."
Eleven busloads of people arrived in Washington aboard charter buses, including two from Chicago, one from Michigan, two from Ohio, one from Boston, four from New Jersey and one from Atlanta, said Susan Chang, the president of the Taiwanese Association of America.
In addition, others came from Los Angeles, Houston, Tennessee and Iowa, she said.
Some 300 to 400 Washington-area Taiwanese-Americans will also join the rally, she said.
Non-Taiwanese have not been invited to the rally, Yang told the Taipei Times. The organizers had considered inviting Tibetans and Uighurs he said, but decided they wanted this to be a solely Taiwanese-American activity.
US congressmen will also be noticeably absent. The rally coincides with the Easter weekend, in which Congress is on recess and many other members of the Washington establishment are out of town visiting families for the seasonal school break.
In addition to Washington, similar rallies were scheduled for Saturday in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle and Houston. Overseas, rallies were planned in Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and Canada, in addition to Taipei.
"We strongly urge the United States and the international community to resolutely oppose China's `Anti-Secession Law,'" said a statement of the 326 Taiwanese-American Action Committee, which was to be read at the rally. "We further ask the United States and its democratic allies help create an environment in which the people of Taiwan will be able to exercise their right to self-determination."
"The future of Taiwan must be determined by the people of Taiwan," the statement added. Wu Ming-chi, the president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, Taiwan's main congressional lobbying group in Washington, said that both the House and the Senate "strongly oppose the so-called Anti-Secession Law."
He cited letters the leadership of the international relations committees of both chambers sent to Beijing officials in February urging them not to enact the law, the near-unanimous recent House resolution condemning the law, and statements by more than 30 congressmen on the floor of both chambers opposing the law.
Asked about the pan-blue camp's reservations about Taiwan's million-person march on Saturday, Yang said that "the numbers speak for themselves as to how the Taiwan people feel."
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS