More than 1 million people are expected to join hands in an island-long human chain today as a peaceful means of protest against China's military threat.
Organizers of the "228 Hand-in-Hand Rally" yesterday encouraged more people to come out in support of the event in the hope that this display of people-power would focus international attention on Taiwan's precarious relations with China, which has 496 missiles aimed at the country.
The event was originally aimed at bringing 1 million people together to form a 500km-long human chain from Keelung County in the north to the southernmost tip of Pingtung County. Due to enormous public interest, more than 1 million people have signed up to take part and the length of the chain has been extended to nearly 600km.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The chain will primarily run along National Highway No. 1 and partially along Highways No. 3 and No. 5, from Hoping Island near Keelung to Pingtung's Oluanpi.
The participants are expected to join hands at 2:28pm today.
"Our history is about to be written by ourselves. We use the softest approach in the hope of producing the biggest shock to build up our confidence and demonstrate the will of the Taiwanese people in the hope of changing China's attitudes," said Annie Lee (李安妮), daughter of former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), the national leader of the massive event.
Chief organizer Ng Chiau-tong (黃昭堂) yesterday called on people who have to work today to leave their offices for a minute and link hands with their colleagues outside. He said motorists should honk their horns to show their support.
Those who haven't yet signed up can just stop at any part of the designated route and join the line, Ng said, urging participants to bring cameras along.
The rally is a collaboration between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its partner, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), of which Lee is the founder, and is expected to bolster President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) re-election bid.
Prominent members of the pan-green camp are expected to take part in today's rally. Chen and Lee will join the line in Miaoli County. Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) will take part in Hsichih in Taipei County, and the first lady, Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍), and her daughter, son-in-law and grandson will be at Taipei's 228 Peace Memorial Park, together with Taipei County Commissioner Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
Premier Yu Shyi-kun will join the chain in the middle in Changhua County, and Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) will take part in Kaohsiung City.
Also see story:
PEACE AT LAST? UN experts had warned of threats and attacks ahead of the voting, but after a turbulent period, Bangladesh has seemingly reacted to the result with calm The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday celebrated a landslide victory in the first elections held since a deadly 2024 uprising, with party leader Tarique Rahman to become prime minister. Bangladesh Election Commission figures showed that the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami alliance. The US embassy congratulated Rahman and the BNP for a “historic victory,” while India praised Rahman’s “decisive win” in a significant step after recent rocky relations with Bangladesh. China and Pakistan, which grew closer to Bangladesh since the uprising and the souring of ties with India, where ousted Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina
FAST-TRACK: The deal is to be sent to the legislature, but time is of the essence, as Trump had raised tariffs on Seoul when it failed to quickly ratify a similar pact Taiwan and the US on Thursday signed a trade agreement that caps US tariffs on Taiwanese goods at 15 percent and provides preferential market access for US industrial and agricultural exports, including cars, and beef and pork products. The Taiwan-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade confirms a 15 percent US tariff for Taiwanese goods, and grants Taiwanese semiconductors and related products the most-favorable-treatment under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the Executive Yuan said. In addition, 2,072 items — representing nearly 20 percent of Taiwan’s total exports to the US — would be exempt from additional tariffs and be subject only to
The Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) yesterday released the first images from its Formosat-8A satellite, featuring high-resolution views of Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), Tainan’s Anping District (安平), Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor (興達港), Japan’s National Stadium in Tokyo and Barcelona airport. Formosat-8A, named the “Chi Po-lin Satellite” after the late Taiwanese documentary filmmaker Chi Po-lin (齊柏林), was launched on Nov. 29 last year. It is designed to capture images at a 1m resolution, which can be sharpened to 0.7m after processing, surpassing the capabilities of its predecessor, Formosat-5, the agency said. It is the first of TASA’s eight-satellite Formosat-8 constellation to be sent into orbit and
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday approved a special pardon exempting a woman in her 80s convicted of killing her disabled son from imprisonment. After carefully reviewing the case, Lai pardoned Lin Liu Lung-tzu (林劉龍子) from the prison sentence while acknowledging her conviction, citing the extreme circumstances she faced, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. Under Article 3 of the Amnesty Act (赦免法), the two kinds of pardons are exempting an offender from the execution of a punishment or declaring the punishment to be invalid. Kuo said Lin Liu had spent more than 50 years caring for her son, before
RSS