Academics and activists yesterday criticized President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) civil rights and foreign policy at a forum hosted by the Taiwan Forever Association.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator-elect Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said that while he had backed the passage of the Police Power Exercise Act (警察職權行使法) — which requires police to use force proportionally and reveal their identities, the act was promulgated before the Sunflower movement’s 2014 occupation of the Executive Yuan’s Main Chamber and people never thought that the “the police would actually beat people.”
Ascertaining who was responsible for what happened is an important part of realizing transitional justice, he said.
Taiwan Forever Association secretary-general Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠) said he has been kept busy during the eight years of Ma’s administration.
While Ma pushed for legislation giving both the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights the force of domestic law, his respect for human rights could only be called “counterfeit” because of the numerous human rights violation cases that occurred under his watch, Kao said.
He dismissed the government’s claim that it was unable to identify the police officers responsible for hitting protesters, stating that police have a face recognition system for which the Ministry of Science and Technology has also contributed funds.
While legislation requires police officers to wear identification stating their names and positions, they often wear raincoats while on duty to avoid recognition, he said.
In related news, Academia Sinica research fellow Wu Jieh-min (吳介民) said that Beijing’s “united front” strategy is complicated and is now focused on enforcing the “suzerainty” of Taiwan. If Taiwan accepts the so-called “1992 consensus,” it would be difficult to turn back because its essence is that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to “one China,” he said, adding that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Ma no longer refer to the “different interpretations” aspect of the formula as evidenced by Ma’s remarks during his visit to Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) on Thursday.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding reached during cross-strait talks in 1992 that Taiwan and China acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means. Former KMT lawmaker Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 said that he had made up the term in 2000, when he was head of the Mainland Affairs Council, before the KMT handed power to the DPP.
It is fortunate the Sunflower movement happened because it interfered with Beijing’s “united front” strategy, leading it to begin talking about the “1992 consensus” after the KMT’s defeat in the 2013 local elections, Wu said.
Previously, Beijing had only referred to the “one country, two systems” formula he said, adding that last year’s meeting between Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was an effort at “precautionary damage control” by China ahead of Taiwanese national elections.
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
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
RSS