More than 400 independence advocates took to the streets yesterday in Taipei under the scorching sun, urging the public not to be “deceived” by the new government but to take the nation’s fate into its own hands.
Organized by the Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP), the marchers waved green flags with the shape of Taiwan in the center and shouted independence slogans. Banners read: “Be masters of Taiwan, not slaves of China.”
MYTH OR REALITY?
“There is no such thing as the Republic of China, only the nation of Taiwan,” TAUP chairman Tsai Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) said in a speech. “As Taiwanese, we must stop allowing a foreign regime to rule over this land. We must have the courage to stand up against the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] government to prevent four years of insults to and humiliation of the Taiwanese population.”
Tsai said it was “deeply regrettable” that the pro-localization Democratic Progressive Party lost the presidential election to the pro-unification KMT. The defeat should motivate more people to fight for Taiwan’s sovereignty, he said.
“No one [else] can determine the fate of Taiwan. Not the Chinese. Not the Americans. Only the Taiwanese people can determine Taiwan’s future,” he said.
Ninety-one-year-old Su Beng (史明), often called the “father of the Taiwanese independence movement,” was unable to attend the rally for health reasons but asked his personal assistant to read a statement he wrote.
In the statement, Su asked the public to cherish the Taiwanese culture that their forefathers so painstakingly contributed to and warned the public against being “brainwashed” again by a “foreign regime.”
POST-WWII
He said that after World War II, more than 60 colonized and occupied countries in Africa, the South Pacific and elsewhere declared independence. Taiwan’s struggle for independence, however, is still being obstructed by Beijing.
“Taiwan has a better than average economy and industries. We have more than 20 million people, yet we are still living under the shadow of colonialism,” he said, citing the KMT, the Chinese Communist Party and the disunity of the Taiwanese public as major stumbling blocks to de jure independence.
One demonstrator said she was disheartened by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) election victory in March.
NO CONFIDENCE
“I will never trust him to protect Taiwan’s national dignity,” said Lin Hsueh-chu (林雪珠), a Taipei City resident. “Opening Taiwan up to China will only bring Taiwan’s economy to an all-time low because China just can’t be trusted.”
Bai She-liu (白射榴), also at the rally, said he had taken time off from work to attend the march to “mourn Taiwan’s vanishing democracy.”
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,