“Happy Birthday, Republic of China (ROC)” was displayed in red, white and blue colors on Ketagalan Boulevard as thousands of students lifted the curtain on the Double Ten national day celebrations yesterday.
The government expanded the scope of the celebrations this year after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regained power in May, filling the ceremony with patriotic songs, dances and parades and attracting tens of thousands of overseas Taiwanese to return to the country and celebrate the nation’s birthday.
The Presidential Office and the nearby area were decorated in red with placards reading “Celebrating the birthday of the ROC” hung on the facade, displaying the nation’s official name again on Double Ten day after the former Democratic Progressive Party government decorated the building with slogans promoting Taiwan’s bid to join the UN last year.
PHOTO: WALLY SANTANA, AP
Before President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) addressed the ceremony, 62-year-old actor Johnny Lin (林宗仁), whose performance in the box-office hit Cape No. 7 (海角七號) as “Uncle Mao” made him a star, won a large round of applause from the audience as he played the moon guitar, a four-stringed musical instrument, and lightened the mood by swapping jokes with the other performers.
Ma arrived with first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) shortly after 10am, made a speech and led the participating guests in the chants “Long live Taiwan Democracy” and “Long live the ROC.”
Seven attack aircraft from the Air Force’s Thunder Tiger aerobatic team flew over the Presidential Office following Ma’s speech, closely followed by a motorcycle fleet of military police saluting the president.
Pan-blue heavyweights, including KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), attended the ceremony, while DPP politicians were absent.
A small group of protesters from the anti-Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) campaign, led by Chinese Unity Promotion Party chairman Lin Cheng-chieh (林正杰), held a small-scale demonstration on Hengyang Road, urging Ma to finish the investigation into the former president and his family members’ alleged money-laundering and to imprison Chen as soon as possible.
“Toughen up, President Ma. Put Chen Shui-bian in jail,” they shouted.
To prevent any protests and clashes, thousands of police were deployed around the area yesterday, with tight security checks at every intersection surrounding the Presidential Office. The strict measures were not appreciated by everyone.
“It’s our country’s birthday, so why can’t the people go to the ceremony and celebrate national day as well?” a middle-age man, who was stopped outside the ceremony, shouted at police.
The three-hour ceremony proceeded smoothly under clear skies, but several guards and students fainted because of the heat.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods