Taking to the streets
Labor groups and many other protesters on Saturday took to the streets to demonstrate against the government’s new labor policy. Many were labor representatives who I interviewed during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) term, and some were student leaders who I interviewed during the Sunflower movement in 2014.
I support and praise them for taking their fight for workers’ rights to the streets.
However, a photo of a topless woman whose clothing was allegedly stripped off by police during the protest was posted on Facebook, accusing the police of overreacting.
Spreading false accusations is irrelevant to the protest itself, misdirects its focus and will undoubtedly increase tension between the police and the public, which is highly undesirable.
Luckily, police equipped with hidden cameras were able to record what actually happened, which helped avoid a big misunderstanding.
After the controversy caused when New Party spokesman Wang Ping-chung’s (王炳忠) home was searched, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration could have faced even more trouble if the police had failed to clarify the accusation.
On the other hand, it should be mentioned that during the legislature’s review of the draft amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) earlier this month, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said that the sound of protesters outside the Legislative Yuan was a recording.
Many of my friends who support the DPP criticized Chiu’s statement on their Facebook pages.
The DPP government has been in power for almost two years. The pan-blue camp dislikes the government, but they have now been joined by some supporters who voted for Tsai.
If the government says that the sound of protesters was just a recording and continues to provoke them, it will make its supporters even more unhappy. This is not a good thing for the Tsai administration, which has promised to act with extreme humility.
Huang Jui-lin
New Taipei City
The US Department of Defense recently released this year’s “Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China.” This annual report provides a comprehensive overview of China’s military capabilities, strategic objectives and evolving global ambitions. Taiwan features prominently in this year’s report, as capturing the nation remains central to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) vision of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” a goal he has set for 2049. The report underscores Taiwan’s critical role in China’s long-term strategy, highlighting its significance as a geopolitical flashpoint and a key target in China’s quest to assert dominance
The National Development Council (NDC) on Wednesday last week launched a six-month “digital nomad visitor visa” program, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported on Monday. The new visa is for foreign nationals from Taiwan’s list of visa-exempt countries who meet financial eligibility criteria and provide proof of work contracts, but it is not clear how it differs from other visitor visas for nationals of those countries, CNA wrote. The NDC last year said that it hoped to attract 100,000 “digital nomads,” according to the report. Interest in working remotely from abroad has significantly increased in recent years following improvements in
The Legislative Yuan passed legislation on Tuesday aimed at supporting the middle-aged generation — defined as people aged 55 or older willing and able to work — in a law initially proposed by Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Wu Chun-cheng (吳春城) to help the nation transition from an aged society to a super-aged society. The law’s passage was celebrated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the TPP. The brief show of unity was welcome news, especially after 10 months of political fighting and unconstitutional amendments that are damaging democracy and the constitutional order, eliciting concern
Following a series of suspected sabotage attacks by Chinese vessels on undersea cables in the Baltic Sea last year, which impacted Europe’s communications and energy infrastructure, an international undersea cable off the coast of Yehliu (野柳) near Keelung was on Friday last week cut by a Chinese freighter. Four cores of the international submarine communication cable connecting Taiwan and the US were damaged. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) dispatched a ship to the site after receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom and located the Shunxin-39, a Cameroon-flagged cargo ship operated by a Hong Kong-registered company and owned by a Chinese
RSS