More than 100 protesters from more than 30 civic groups yesterday marched against forced evictions, calling for land development and urban renewal to be halted until related laws and regulations are reviewed.
Shouting “solidarity” and “zero eviction” in English and Chinese, protesters threw shoes at a cardboard box barrier on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. The barrier was covered with slogans representing a lack of public participation, abuse of public power to further private interests and a lack of avenues of relief under current rules.
“There are all sorts of shortcomings with current land policy, including the laws themselves and their implementation. We want a comprehensive policy review, with a freeze on all controversial cases until it is completed,” said Hsu Shih-chung (許世忠), spokesman for the International Tribunal on Evictions, an opinion court the groups hosted a session for on Saturday to raise awareness of housing rights.
“Land appropriation policy has not fully implemented requirements for the views of residents to be respected, resulting in discussions with residents being reduced to a formality and expropriations occurring by force when residents disagree,” he said.
The march began at the former Huaguang Community (華光社區), stopping outside the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to protest the ministry’s role in the promotion of land expropriation and development in connection with prominent infrastructure, including plans to expand Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and to move Tainan’s railway line underground.
“The ministry has already turned land development into infrastructure policy, using it to subsidize the costs of major projects, which means that residents affected by MRT and light rail construction and road expansion all face ‘looting’ evictions,” said Chen Chih-hsiao (陳致曉), spokesman for a self-help association of homeowners affected by Tainan’s railway project.
Demonstrators representing eviction cases in seven nations participated in yesterday’s march, along with domestic activists from across the nation.
“This march is important to us, because we are extremely grateful the International Tribunal on Evictions has brought attention to our case,” said Hsueh Chiung-mei (薛?美), a member of a self-help association for residents of a Kaohsiung fruit and vegetable market, who added that the Kaohsiung City Government has been unresponsive to their plight.
Cheng Yuan-wen (鄭淵文), head of a self-help association for residents of Kaohsiung’s Dagouding (大溝頂), said participating in the protest was aimed at forcing the Kaohsiung City Government to address their case.
“We hope that people across Taiwan will hear about our case, because the Kaohsiung City Government will not pay any attention to us otherwise,” he said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
RSS