To encourage young people to vote in the nine-in-one elections today, the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy (TYAD) and 50 college student associations have booked 60 shuttle buses to ferry voters home, with the buses setting off from Taipei yesterday afternoon.
The groups raised nearly NT$900,000 to fund their “democratic homecoming shuttle service” for young people, through which 2,500 people aged 18 to 35 could buy discounted bus tickets to return home.
The claim that young Taiwanese do not care about politics is not true, as many who have moved to big cities are so exhausted by work and the high cost of living that they do not have the time to return home to vote, TYAD member and project leader Chang Yu-meng (張育萌) said.
Photo: CNA
Despite this, many young people have bravely stood to defend the nation’s democracy by running in the local elections or promoting the 10 referendums that are being held alongside the elections, demonstrating their idealism and passion to challenge unjust things through political action, Chang said.
As the voting age for referendums has been lowered to 18 after amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) took effect in January, young people should vote on all issues that affect the nation’s future, TYAD said.
Many first-time voters expressed their excitement about being able to practice their civil rights.
A 20-year-old National Taiwan Normal University student surnamed Chen (陳) said he would elect his ideal mayor and councilors and express his opinions about each referendum by voting for the first time.
National Chengchi University sophomore student Huang Meng-han (黃孟涵), a psychology major, said she would leave Taipei for her hometown in Yunlin County’s Douliu City (斗六) to vote in the elections for the first time.
A National Chengchi University economics student surnamed Liao (廖) and a Soochow University accounting student Wei Yun-feng (魏云楓) said that they care more about the referendums related to marriage equality.
Everyone should have the right to get married, Wei said, adding that she is concerned about the Kaohsiung mayoral election, too.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS