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DPP councilors livid at ‘political’ repairs

DPP supporters throw cream pies at a portrait of ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin yesterday outside the Grand Hotel in Taipei, where he will be staying during his visit to Taiwan next week. PHOTO: AP

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors yesterday lashed out at the Taipei City Government for resurfacing the road leading to the city’s Grand Hotel in record time ahead of the visit of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) next week.

Chen is scheduled to arrive in Taipei on Monday and will stay at the Grand Hotel during his five-day visit.

Taipei City’s Public Works Department completed the resurfacing work in one day on Thursday, DPP Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) said yesterday at Taipei City Council.

“Taipei residents have to put up with bumpy roads every day, and it usually takes several months for the department to repair a road,” Chien said.

“Apparently the city government treats Chen Yunlin as a special guest and all Taipei residents are second-rate citizens in comparison,” she said.

DPP Taipei City Councilor Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) further condemned the city government for placing models of pandas on the city’s Renai Circle as a gesture to please Chen Yunlin and China, asking the city government to replace the pandas with local animals such as Formosan black bears.

The two councilors also urged residents to join them in hanging national flags or protest banners along Zhongshan N Road, which is on the route to the Grand Hotel, to express their opposition to Chen Yunlin’s visit.

In response, Chen Kuai-lin (陳桂麟), chief secretary of the department, said it had started the resurfacing project in September at the request of Taipei City’s Information and Tourism Department, but had to delay the work until last Saturday because of National Day celebrations.

The Public Works Department said it would complete repairs on 12 major roads by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said in Los Angeles on Thursday that Taiwanese should treat Chen with the same courtesy they would extend to any other visitor.

Lu made the remarks during a transit stop in the city en route to Taiwan from a visit to Mexico City, where she attended the 26th annual conference of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women.

Lu said the public should treat the ARATS chairman with the utmost kindest and friendliness to let him understand what Taiwan is really like.

“I believe there is no reason for our Democratic Progressive Party compatriots to feel too nervous or tense” about Chen’s visit, Lu said, pointing out that “although we are not a great power, we are a democratic country and we are the masters of Taiwan.”

“We should ... let the other side of the Taiwan Strait clearly understand that the Republic of China on Taiwan is not a part of the People’s Republic of China,” Lu said.

The former vice president said she had no plans to meet Chen Yunlin during his stay.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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