Social networking sites were yesterday inundated with several high-profile celebrities’ indignant comments over the government’s overnight forcible eviction of students occupying the Executive Yuan, which led to violent clashes and bloodshed and to the labeling of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) as “dictators.”
Hours after hundreds of students climbed over the barriers at the main entrances of the Executive Yuan compound and occupied the nation’s highest administrative body on Sunday night, Jiang ordered the National Police Agency to empty the building by yesterday morning.
Riot police launched five waves of eviction attempts between 1 am and 5am yesterday, resorting to brutal force and even water cannon. About 110 people were injured during the process.
“Ma and Jiang have responded to students’ occupation of the legislature with ... foul indifference. They pretend they are listening to what people have to say and respond politely, but they keep going their own way anyway... This is indifferent dictatorship,” Taiwanese filmmaker Yang Ya-che (楊雅?) wrote on Facebook yesterday.
“They have no problem talking with China, but when it comes to protesters, they would rather have police beat them down with batons than sit down with them... It has become clear what they will go down in history for: their autocracy,” Yang said.
Famed Taiwanese director Lin Cheng-sheng (林正盛) also took to Facebook to express his anger, saying: “While the bloodthirsty government’s order to beat up young students has deeply saddened me, it has also taught me to stand up against this bloodsucker with a stronger and softer willpower.”
Theater director Ko I-chen (柯一正) praised the courage shown by students who launched a sit-in inside the Legislative Yuan yesterday despite the government’s forcible eviction of protesters.
“Our nation’s leader has become too despicable for people to tolerate. Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said they [students protesting inside the legislature] will never retreat!” Ko wrote on Facebook.
Lin is one of the protest leaders.
Taiwanese author and director Giddens Ko (柯景騰), also known as Jiu Ba Dao (九把刀), criticized the government’s use of violence against unarmed students.
“Before what happened last night, I used to believe that we could tolerate different opinions... Perhaps we will never be able to agree on anything in a civil society, but I have only one clear and simple stance now, that all of us should stand together against government-led violence,” Giddens Ko said.
Giddens Ko said the students’ occupation of the Executive Yuan was not a disgrace to democracy, adding that the real shame was that people who were capable of changing the nation’s destiny refused to come forward at a time of national crisis.
Taiwanese director Chen Yu-hsun (陳玉勳) dismissed some netizens’ characterization of the attempted occupation of the Executive Yuan as a “foolhardy operation,” saying that would be tantamount to “blaming victims for being raped.”
“I never knew how autocratic regimes were created when I was little, but I do now,” Chen said.
Indie singer-songwriter Deserts Chang (張懸) said what was happening in Taiwan today was inevitable for any nation whose governmental systems and operations required a fundamental overhaul.
“Even though there are major repercussions, even though we can only painfully and slowly change the government’s ‘ugly face,’ this is the price people who call this island home are willing to pay,” Chang said.
A number of celebrities including Chang, Chen, Giddens Ko, filmmaker Umin Boya (馬志翔) and actress Gin Oy (歐陽靖) also changed their Facebook profile pictures to black yesterday to mourn for the wounded students and the nation’s blemished democracy.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS