A slow-moving cavalcade of taxicabs yesterday paralyzed morning traffic outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei to protest the government’s apparent relaxation of restrictions on the ride-sharing app Uber.
Cab drivers’ unions said they could no longer “restrain” their members following the Investment Commission’s failure to revoke Uber Taiwan’s investment license earlier this week.
More than 100 taxis surrounded the Executive Yuan, crawling along neighboring roads.
Photo: CNA
“Now that there is no longer any business, there is nowhere else for us to drive,” one driver said, adding that the taxi drivers were just “passing by.”
Another driver said the parade of cabs was a protest against the government’s disregard for Uber’s legal violations and the interests of legal cab drivers.
“As union officials, we no longer have any position or reason to convince drivers that they need to act legally,” Taipei City Professional Drivers’ Union president Cheng Li-chia (鄭力嘉) told a news conference which saw “pan-green” and “pan-blue” driver and industry unions nationwide unite in blasting the government inaction against Uber.
Individual drivers would “use their own methods to defend their rights,” with union representatives shouting threats to “tear down the government” as part of the battle against Uber, Cheng said.
Double-digit percentage declines in business in recent years can be attributed to Uber, the unions said.
The Investment Commission last month promised to consider revoking Uber’s investment license after hundreds of taxis paralyzed traffic around the Legislative Yuan, but earlier this week announced it would delay a decision until administrative lawsuits involving the firm are resolved.
“The lawsuits could take three or four years before a definite conclusion is reached, so all we see is the death of the government’s good faith to resolve the issue. There is no longer any way to get the law to protect us,” Cheng said.
The government was “protecting foreigners” at taxi drivers’ expense, he said.
Uber critics called for an immediate ban on the firm for its “misleading registration as an information services company,” tax evasion and regulation-violating rate cuts, and condemn the government for allowing the firm to operate while it considers legal amendments.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) has said that Uber must follow the same regulations as taxi drivers, while calling on cab drivers to cooperate with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in crafting regulations to help diversify the industry and enhance their ability to compete.
“I am not opposed to Uber’s entrance — but it has not been playing fairly,” said Sun Chen-te (孫鎮德), a former executive director of the Taipei City Professional Drivers’ Union, citing the failure of the app company’s drivers to apply for professional licenses and pass government review.
The “slow drive” around the Executive Yuan was likely a spontaneous protest by individual drivers because of its “small scale,” given the mobility and strong political consciousness of the tens of thousands of taxi drivers in greater Taipei, he said.
Taxi drivers — who typically own their own vehicles — can gather quickly using telephones or radio.
“Cars can be a fearful tool,” he said. “Taiwan Taxi has more than ten thousand affiliated cars, while Crown Taxi has another 3- or 4,000 — it would take just a few minutes to paralyze you [the city], if they wanted to shut down a road.”
Additional reporting by Su Fan-ho and CNA
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods