Scuffles broke out in Taipei yesterday as protesters alleging labor abuses by IT giant Foxconn Technology Group tried to enter a venue where President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was opening Asia's biggest technology fair.
Shouting “Save workers, President Ma!” about 60 people from several labor groups accused the high-tech company of making profit by setting up “sweatshops” around the world and clashed with police when they tried to approach Ma in front of the Nangang Exhibition Hall.
They were protesting the death of 10 workers at a Foxconn plant in the Chinese city of Shenzhen in apparent suicides this year.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
An 11th worker died at a factory run by the firm in northern China.
Ma ignored the protest and entered the hall, while the police stopped the protesters at the door.
Speaking earlier at the opening ceremony of Computex Taipei 2010 at Taipei World Trade Center, the president touted the rapid development of the nation’s high-tech industry and wireless technology.
“Taiwan and mainland China will sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), which will help us connect with the world, and we expect the computer industry to serve as a vanguard in the process of seeking closer economic ties with the international community,” Ma said at the ceremony.
The fair has attracted more than 1,700 companies around the world, including 106 Chinese firms.
Ma lauded the development of WiMAX technology as he watched a demonstration of how WiMAX’s high-speed connectivity could facilitate medical services, including transmitting test results and exchanging medical information between sites.
The president said he expected a further expansion of the use of WiMAX in disaster and rescue work, such as sending geological information on local rivers and hills to disaster prevention centers during the typhoon season to better monitor the situation and protect local residents.
“Technology deployment is still relatively new in disaster prevention work. Hopefully, by taking advantage of WiMAX technology in conducting flood and mudslide prevention work, we can reach out to the people and protect more lives,” he said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS