Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) is said to have reached a decision with party cadres to mobilize at least 5,000 people to stage protests outside three planned public hearings by the Executive Yuan on lifting a ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures, sources close to the KMT said.
The decision, reached during a high-level party meeting on Friday, is to see KMT demonstrations surrounding the three public hearings in New Taipei City, Kaohsiung and Taipei, scheduled to take place on Dec. 25, Jan. 2 and Jan. 8 respectively, said the sources, who declined to be named.
Another aim of the protests is to promote Hung’s planned recall campaign to unseat Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators who support easing the import ban on food products from Japan’s Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures, which was imposed shortly after a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in March 2011.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
The three public hearings were arranged after the government’s initial 10 hearings last month ended in physical altercations between KMT-led demonstrators and government officials.
According to the sources, the party’s goal is to mobilize 5,000 demonstrators per protest, with each local city and county councilors responsible for bringing at least 200 protesters each.
Hung’s announcement signified a shift in the party leadership in favor of social activism and street protests, which local leaders have long deemed essential for the KMT’s political survival, given that it is an opposition party facing attacks from the Cabinet, the sources said.
Former Chinese Unity Promotion Party chairman Lin Cheng-chieh (林正杰), one of the DPP’s founding members, has been coaching KMT youth groups on social activism and protests, the sources said, adding that KMT politicians seeking re-election in 2018 are instructed to treat the protests as a preparation for the 2018 electorial races.
Meanwhile, KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday hosted an event in Yunlin County to promote a nationwide referendum drive he recently initiated on lifting the import ban, during which he dismissed allegations that he is acting without the blessing of the KMT headquarters.
“I have attended a lot of signature drives for the petition and found their participants to be from both the pan-blue and pan-green camps, or nonpartisan. A nationwide plebiscite should not be impugned with excessive attributions of political motives,” he said.
While he is not opposed to the party headquarters’ efforts to recall DPP lawmakers, Hau said such actions have to be taken now instead of waiting until after the DPP lifts the food import restrictions, as it would be too late to prevent harm to public health.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard