A Taiwanese delegation is visiting Washington in a bid to draw attention to what they called “Taiwan’s Watergate” of illegal wiretapping and abuse of power by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Scheduled to depart for the US today, the 13-member Taiwan United Nations Alliance (TAIUNA) delegation will visit Boston, New York, Washington and Philadelphia on a nine-day mission to lobby for Taiwan to join the UN.
A number of legislators and representatives from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union yesterday gave their support for TAIUNA’s “UN to Taiwan. Peace Forever” lobbying effort.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“It’s up to the people of Taiwan to save this country. We should stand up with our determined voice to let the world know that Taiwan belongs in the UN,” DPP Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) said.
Former Department of Health director and former DPP legislator Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) also gave his backing. He led TAIUNA and other groups to WHO meetings in Geneva in 2010 and last year.
Twu said the current political firestorm over the charges of influence-peddling against Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Special Investigation Division (SID) phone-tapping of top politicians and opposition officials, has much in common with the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.
“What we have is Taiwan’s Watergate. Ma is abusing his presidential powers by authorizing illegal wiretaps and secret surveillance. Ma is doing this for political reasons and to purge politicians standing in his way,” he said.
“The US Watergate case led to the resignation of [then-US] president Richard Nixon. In Taiwan’s Watergate case, the government is interfering with the judiciary, and using dirty tactics to subvert legal procedures. We have already seen the regression of our democratic system, and Ma is masterminding political purges and a power struggle,” Twu said.
Following a two-day stay in New York, where the delegation expects to be joined by up to several thousand overseas Taiwanese for a “Keep Taiwan Free, Save Our Democracy” parade, TAIUNA will head to Washington for a three-day visit.
According to Chiang Cheng-tien (江政典), TAIUNA’s youth delegate, overseas Taiwanese groups have arranged meetings with members of the US Congress on Capitol Hill.
“We have already prepared letters and reports to disseminate information and press the US Congress on Taiwan’s Watergate case, and on Ma’s abuse of power and subversion of Taiwan’s democracy,” Chiang said. “We will request that the US government express its strong concern and condemnation regarding Taiwan’s Watergate.”
TAIUNA has worked with overseas Taiwanese organizations and the Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs to organize rallies and demonstrations at the UN headquarters in Geneva, and also during the annual convening of the UN General Assembly in New York.
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
ASEAN BATTLEGROUND: Japan and Australia could be drawn into Pacific tensions as China sets its sights on the Diaoyutai Islands and further beyond the first island chain Tensions between China and the US in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to intensify, the National Security Bureau and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, recommending that Taiwan continue to emphasize its shared values and interests to encourage resistance to Chinese aggression. US commitments in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to continue unabated despite the war in Ukraine, as Beijing takes advantage of the conflict to expand its influence in the region, the agencies said in reports delivered to the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Sunday, ahead of a hearing yesterday on regional developments and trends. Although Russia’s invasion of
ONLINE REPORT: Confirmed cases filling out the online contact tracing report can check a box to indicate that a close contact had received a booster dose, an official said The guidelines for diagnosing COVID-19 have been revised to include people aged 65 or older who test positive with a rapid test that is confirmed by a healthcare worker, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 65,794 new local infections. The CECC had first announced the change on Monday, before publishing the new guidelines. Starting today, people aged 65 or older, regardless of whether they are undergoing home quarantine, home isolation or self-disease prevention, can be classified as a confirmed COVID-19 case by a healthcare professional, based on a positive result from an antigen rapid test, said
INFLUENCERS: The Chinese Communist Party uses social media to paint itself in a positive light, while promoting historical ties between Taiwan and China Government agencies are considering measures to counter China’s use of Taiwanese Internet celebrities to conduct “cognitive warfare” campaigns in Taiwan, a source said yesterday. China has trained local Internet celebrities to help it spread propaganda as part of its “united front” efforts against Taiwan, the source said, adding that Beijing was also using TikTok, a Pinterest-like app called Xiaohongshu (also known as Little Red Book) and other social media to influence young Taiwanese. Citing the Mainland Affairs Council, the source said that officials had warned people cooperating with China that they could face fines or other punishments. Stipulations under the Act Governing Relations