Accusing the government of colluding with Beijing to suppress the Republic of China (ROC), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
"The Chinese Communist Party has repressed our national flag at international events, while the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] is doing the same by refusing to recognize the ROC," Ma said in a speech at the ceremony at Banciao Stadium yesterday morning.
"The two parties have joined forces in suppressing the ROC. I, however, will spare no effort to defend the ROC," Ma said.
PHOTO: CNA
Senior KMT members, including party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (
"The celebrations at the Presidential Office are ignoring the nation's title, which is the Republic of China. Since the government doesn't care about the ROC, the Taipei County Government had to assume the responsibility of celebrating the country's birthday," Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (
Ma later led party members at another flag-raising ceremony, presented by the Taipei City Government, at which Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who is also a KMT member, greeted Ma and other party members in front of the city hall.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, AP
After leading the crowd in chanting the slogan "As long as I am here, the ROC will stand strong!" Ma said President Chen Shui-bian (
"His power and all the glory originates from the ROC, but he has refused to recognize this title at critical moments. We will never follow in his steps nor abandon the ROC when it is being suppressed," Ma said. "The ROC will not collapse as long as I am still here."
Wu also accused the government of failing to celebrate the 96th birthday of the ROC, and called on voters to express their disappointment in the government by voting out the DPP in March.
PHOTO: CNA
"Let's shift the power to another party next year. I think the National Double Ten Day celebrations will be much better then," Wu said.
To highlight the difference between its event and the central government's celebrations, the city government hung neon lights spelling out "Celebrating the birthday of the ROC" in Chinese characters on top of Taipei City Hall.
Thousands of people attended the city's ceremony, and later joined Ma and Hau in a 30-minute jog around the city hall.
"We want to tell the world that we are proud of the ROC," Hau 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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater