Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) yesterday put his job on the line, promising to protect legal protesters during the high-level cross-strait meeting that is scheduled to take place in Taichung next month.
Hu said he would step down if he failed to protect people who take part in demonstrations that are conducted in a lawful, rational and non-violent manner.
“The most important thing is that there won’t be any negative impact on the city,” he said.
“Frankly speaking, I’m less concerned about the meeting itself,” the mayor said.
Hu made the remarks during a question-and-answer session at the city council meeting yesterday morning.
The meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), will be held in Taichung in the middle of or late next month.
The two sides have agreed to address four issues in the latest round of negotiations: fishing industry cooperation, quality checks for agricultural products, cross-strait cooperation in inspection and certification and the prevention of double taxation.
They will also “exchange opinions” on an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) the administration seeks to sign with Beijing. The administration has said it hopes to sign the pact next year.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) City Councilwoman Chen Shu-hua (陳淑華) said she was against the city’s plan to set up a special zone for protesters during the Chiang-Chen meeting.
Describing the designated area as similar to a “foreign settlement” during the late Qing Dynasty, Chen said it was very likely that protesters would break through any barriers.
“Who would stay there quietly and behave?” she asked.
“The mayor has kept saying that he will take advantage of this opportunity to promote the city, but it seems he never takes into account the rights of the general public,” Chen said.
Hu then promised to find a place that would satisfy the needs of all involved and at the same time ensure public safety.
Taichung City Police Bureau Director-General Hu Mu-yuan (胡木源) said that police would cordon off the venue during the cross-strait meeting, adding that intruders would be subject to punishment as stipulated in the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法).
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS