College students who want to express their views should do so in a rational way instead of resorting to the “inappropriate” act of throwing shoes at government officials, Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) said.
“College students have the right to express their opinions about the government, but they should not throw shoes at anyone,” Chiang said on Monday in response to lawmakers’ questions at the Legislative Yuan.
His comments came in the wake of several shoe-throwing incidents aimed at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), including at least two over the weekend.
All of the shoes have missed the president or have been blocked by security staff.
However, Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) was not able to avoid being hit by a sneaker thrown by a student protesting a land expropriation case last month.
Almost unheard of until a few months ago, shoe-throwing has become a staple of protests against the government, especially among those angry with the forced demolition of residences in Miaoli’s Dapu Borough (大埔) for a science park extension.
As part of enhanced security for the president, nets have been put up to block objects being thrown, which have included eggs.
The practice has worried the private sector, which is concerned about the country’s political stability and economic development.
Answering questions at a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee, Chiang said people should treat each other with respect and engage in rational communication to avoid negatively affecting the nation’s democratic development.
Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) said security will be stepped up for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) national congress on Nov. 10, with the National Police Agency enlisted to help prevent further attacks.
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