Hundreds of white-clad protesters against the student-led occupation of the Legislative Yuan yesterday held up banners urging people planning to participate in a mass pro-occupation demonstration on Ketagalan Boulevard that day to “go home and return the legislature to the people.”
Waving Republic of China (ROC) flags and wearing white T-shirts printed with the slogan: “Come forward for stability, Taiwan goes global” (安定站出來, 台灣走出去), the anti-occupation protesters gathered outside the Exit East 3 of Taipei Main Station at 2pm yesterday in an attempt to “talk some sense” into people who traveled to Taipei by trains for the mass protest against the cross-strait service agreement yesterday afternoon.
“We want to see the controversy dealt with via the representative system instead of street protests. If the students think the system is flawed, they should resort to deliberative democratic mechanisms or popular referendums, not take to the streets as people did decades ago,” said Sun Chien-ping (孫健萍), convener of the White Civil Justice League, which initiated the anti-occupation protest.
Photo: CNA
The so-called “white-clad army” then marched toward Zhongshan N Road, which is 30 minutes’ walking distance from Ketagalan Boulevard.
It originally planned to rally on the road until 7pm, the planned conclusion time of the Ketagalan protest, but was advised to return to the station by police after causing severe traffic jams.
Supporters of the pact have put up boards reading: “Punish violence” and “Return the legislature to the people” on the pedestrian walkway at the intersection of Zhongxiao W Road and Zhongshan S Road.
However, the signs were quickly changed by opponents of the agreement into “Punish ‘governmental’ violence” and “Return the ‘democratic’ legislature to the people.”
Throughout the process, only verbal disputes broke out between the white-clad army and the black-clad activists protesting against the pact.
The pact has stirred up public concerns since its signing on June 21 last year and prompted hundreds of students to occupy the legislature on March 18 after the way the pact with China was fast-tracked through a legislative committee by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers.
Public divisions over the agreement are deepening as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) remains adamant in his determination to bring the deal into effect.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
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.
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
‘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
RSS