Members of the pro-independence Taiwan Radical Wings party were evicted from a New Year’s Day ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building for waving flags promoting Taiwanese independence yesterday, while the party accused the authorities of failing to protect free speech.
Party members participating in the ceremony displayed a “flag of Taiwan” and an “independence flag,” causing a confrontation with police.
Police officers said that only the national flag was allowed at the ceremony, and evicted several party members and volunteers, while some attendees displaying flags advocating marriage equality were allowed to stay.
Photo: CNA
“Is it not the most typical form of infringement on the freedom of speech that the state treats different opinions differently?” the party said in a statement.
No party members were injured, although a telephone was broken during the eviction, party deputy publicity director Lin Chun-miao (林春妙) said.
The police did not respond to party members’ accusations that they were treated unfairly compared with equal marriage rights advocates who waved rainbow flags, Lin said.
Citing President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) address after winning the presidential election that promised “no citizens have to apologize for their identification,” the party said the eviction of people publicly professing their political stance was counter to the president’s pledge.
The Executive Yuan last month announced Freedom of Expression Day to mark the death of democracy activist Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), but yesterday’s eviction was a bitter irony considering the government’s pledge to ensure the freedom of speech, the party said.
The government has tried to silence the independence movement by identifying the Republic of China (ROC) with Taiwan and vice versa, while the commemoration of Deng’s death with Freedom of Expression Day might do away with Deng’s legacy as a pro-Taiwanese-independence activist, it said.
“As long as Taiwanese independence narratives remain a taboo for the government, there is no true freedom of speech in Taiwan. As along as the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] administration does not face the alien characters of the ROC system, it remains an accomplice of the Chinese settler regime,” the party said.
Meanwhile, a Changhua County man held a flag-raising ceremony using China’s national flag during which which China’s national anthem was played.
Wei Ming-jen (魏明仁), a former military officer who is now in the construction business, acquired a Buddhist temple in the county’s Ershuei Township (二水) six years ago and converted it into a “socialism and nationalism outpost of the People’s Republic of China.”
Wei invited “comrades and unificationists” to join yesterday’s ceremony, with about 200 people in attendance, including reporters from China.
Wei said he is a Chinese citizen and is working toward Taiwan’s unification with China, adding that he burned his Taiwanese identification and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) membership cards.
Changhua County Commissioner Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) of the DPP said he has asked police to monitor Wei Ming-jen’s networking activities, although it was not worthwhile to trouble himself with a person who betrays his nation and repurposes a temple for political aims.
“If he has the courage, he should go and raise the ROC national flag in China,” the commissioner said.
The Mainland Affairs Council said it does not comment on the political views of individuals, adding that identification with the ROC is the most widely accepted political view among Taiwanese.
Additional reporting by Yen Hung-chun and CNA
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS