Taiwanese independence advocates yesterday rallied to support the unveiling of the new American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) compound, while proponents of unification with China protested.
Taipei police and back-up units separated the groups on the road outside the compound in the city’s Neihu District (內湖) and secured the area for Taiwanese and US political figures attending the ceremony.
Pro-independence rally organizers estimated that 600 people participated, including people bused in from central and southern Taiwan.
They carried banners and shouted slogans calling for independence and enhanced military cooperation with the US to counter China’s belligerent threats.
“We are not protesting; we are here to celebrate the unveiling. The US will continue to help protect Taiwanese from China under the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act,” Taiwan Government Party chairman Peter Ku (古文發) said.
The compound sends a strong message to the world that Taiwan and the US are forging stronger bilateral links and that Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from military invasion by China, Taiwan Independence Party chairman and retired army colonel Tseng Miao-hung (曾淼泓) said.
“Our members support upgrading the AIT into the official US embassy and setting up more installations here to make Taiwan one of the US’ main political and military operational centers in the western Pacific,” Tseng added.
Taiwan Autonomy Alliance head Brian Qo (吳崑松) said his organization had prepared a congratulatory card with a letter expressing its gratitude and support, but police barricades prevented him from presenting it to AIT officials.
However, Lee Tung-hsing (李東興) of the Taiwan Independence Banner Squadron had a different message for the AIT.
“My organization is here to tell the US government to remove the Republic of China (ROC) political structure. It was the US military that assisted Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his ROC regime in its illegal occupation of Taiwan in the late 1940s. Taiwanese have had enough of this nonsense. Please return this Chinese ROC monstrosity back to China, as it is the US’ responsibility,” Lee said.
On the other side of the road, Chang An-le (張安樂) led his Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP) and other pro-China groups in a protest against the compound unveiling, at which they displayed the “five star” national flag of China.
Chang and his supporters had a minor scuffle with police when they tried to present a “gift” to the AIT: a wooden plaque with the Chinese idiom xuan ya le ma (懸崖勒馬, “rein in the horse at the brink of a precipice”).
“We demand that the US government withdraw its military from Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands ... because the US has acted like a bully and occupied these territories in dishonorable ways. Their bases in the region are blocking China’s access to the Pacific through the East China Sea,” the CUPP said in a statement.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
RSS