The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and civic groups yesterday urged supporters to participate in various protests to be held around President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration ceremony on May 20 to voice their discontent with the administration.
At a massive protest at Huashan 1914 Creative Park, arranged by the TSU for the morning of May 20, people will be invited to throw eggs at a giant LCD screen broadcasting Ma’s inauguration ceremony, TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said.
Held on the heels of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) rally the previous day, which will end at the park, the protest is scheduled to begin at 8am and protesters plan to march to “as close as we can get” to the Presidential Office, Huang said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The TSU’s demonstration intends to highlight Ma’s “cheating the people,” including betraying his pledges to return the ill-gotten party assets of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and to freeze the prices of fuel and electricity that he had made before the presidential election, Huang said.
The pro-independence Taiwan Nation Alliance has also announced it would stage a four-day protest between May 17 and May 20 on Chingtao E Rd.
Hakka groups in Miaoli, Hsinchu and Taoyuan counties are set to announce their support for the DPP’s protest today at Yimin (Heroes) Temple in Miaoli County.
The groups said in a press release that they would call on Hakka to attend the May 19 rally and voice their anger over Ma’s poor performance, in particular his neglect of infrastructure and cultural preservation in Hakka-populated regions.
Civic groups led by the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan have scheduled protests from May 13 through May 21 at the Taipei Railway Station.
There has also been an ongoing anti-Ma protest in Taipei — a sit-in by a group of young DPP city councilors on Ketagalan Boulevard.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth