Kuroshio Democracy, a group of university students from central and southern Taiwan, yesterday said they would step up their effort to recall lawmakers by launching a nationwide campaign.
Warning the legislators that the Kuroshio — or the black tide — is flowing back, the group held a press conference announcing that they would soon launch a nationwide campaign to pressure the legislators to support the non-government version of a bill to establish a mechanism for monitoring cross-strait agreements.
From Friday to Sunday, the group marched through the streets of New Taipei City’s Banciao (板橋), Tamsui (淡水), Jhonghe (中和) and Yonghe (永和) — the constituencies of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池), Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) and Lin Te-fu (林德福), who have been dubbed the “four major bandits” by the Sunflower movement.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Their presence attracted thousands of local residents to help champion their cause: asking lawmakers to break from the will of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) or face recall.
Kuroshio Democracy spokesperson Chen Wei (陳蔚) said that the three-day rallies, which included protesting outside the KMT headquarters and using constituencies to pressure lawmakers, have successfully extended the combat zone beyond the Legislative Yuan.
Chen said now was a good time to further expand the movement across the nation, adding that different social groups from different regions would join the cause.
Chen said that while the media and public were focused on the occupation of the Legislative Yuan, the group’s action has built momentum outside the legislature, raising citizens’ awareness about the importance of establishing an instution to oversee cross-strait agreements.
“Legislate first, review next,” the group said, adding: “The non-government version of the bill should have priority over the version conjured up as a result of clandestine interparty negotiations.”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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