Veterans’ group 800 Heroes vice commander-in-chief Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) and two other veterans yesterday reported to the Taipei Police Department’s Zhongzheng First Precinct for questioning, as police investigated whether they had incited protesters to resort to violence or engage in other illegal activities during a rally against planned pension reforms for military personnel last month.
At a demonstration outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on April 25, 32 police officers and 11 journalists were injured as protesters tried to break into the legislature.
Many journalists said they were attacked or had their cameras vandalized by protesters who demanded that they stop filming or photographing.
Photo: CNA
Before reporting to the police, Wu told reporters that as “law-obeying veterans,” they would follow all legal procedures and that they hoped the evidence would attest to their innocence.
He displayed photographs of older people being pressed on the ground and allegedly punched by Thunder Squad officers as evidence that they had been mistreated by the police.
“The government conducted a violent crackdown during our legal demonstration. These are old people in their 60s and 70s, was it necessary to have three to four young Thunder Squad officers holding them down?” he said, adding that the pictures were only the tip of the iceberg.
“President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration treats us like disposable chopsticks. Why would old veterans in their 60s and 70s go on the street to protest? We are not merely fighting for our pensions. What we want is to safeguard the Constitution, national security, as well as the honor and dignity of military personnel,” he said.
While yesterday’s demonstration only saw about 200 people participating, many of them walked to Zhongzheng First Precinct with Wu to show their support.
Earlier yesterday, retired major general Huang Tung-hui (黃冬輝), who had also been summoned by police, reported to Zhongzheng First Precinct for questioning.
Huang denied having incited others to attack the police or other people, adding that he was not instructed to do anything during the demonstration.
His actions were unrelated to 800 Heroes, he said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS