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.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
RSS