Taipei would like see clearer rules applied to protest activities in the plaza in front of Taipei 101, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
“There is nothing wrong with the plaza serving to display Taiwan’s democracy and freedom, but there must be standards,” Ko said.
He said the city government would seek to establish a special “protest zone” on the site, while adding that the final policy would hinge on talks with the management of the Taipei 101 building, which administers the plaza.
In response to questions on how the city would response to a suit filed yesterday by the pro-unification Concentric Patriotism Association (愛國同心會) accusing the police department of infringing on their rights, Ko said that everything would be done in accordance with the law, but that group members should be more civilized when expressing their views.
As Taipei 101 is one of the most popular attractions for Chinese tourists in Taipei, Falun Gong practitioners and Taiwan independence advocates have regularly demonstrated at the site.
While most of the demonstrations have been peaceful without police interference, in recent years, pro-China groups — including the Concentric Patriotism Association — have often showed up, not only to campaign for their cause, but also allegedly to attack people who disagree with them.
Last week, association executive director Zhang Xiuye (張秀葉), a Chinese immigrant, was arrested on charges of verbally abusing police officers and interrupting official business, leading members of the group to file lawsuits against the mayor and Xinyi Police Precinct Chief Wu Ching-tien (吳敬田).
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
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