The strong showing at the mass protest in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei yesterday has given the students who have been occupying the legislative floor for 13 days the confidence to continue their fight for Taiwan’s democracy, they said.
After protest leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) announced that the number of protesters had surpassed 350,000 — and later surpassed 500,000 — a loud cheer erupted in the legislative chamber, which has been occupied by about 200 students since March 18.
“500,000 people have spoken. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), do you still plan on hiding? 500,000 people demand your positive response,” Lin said.
Photo: Sam Yeh. AFP
The protest, a collaboration with civic groups, was the first time since the “Sunflower student movement” began that the students tried to actively bring in outside help.
The protest appeared to gain support after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) rejected the demands the students made in a press conference on Saturday.
Ma conditionally agreed to establish a legislative monitoring mechanism on future cross-strait agreements, but rejected the organization of a citizens’ constitutional conference and the withdrawal of the controversial service trade pact, saying that the monitoring mechanism and the trade pact should be separate issues.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
The movement’s leadership planned to organize the mass protest on Ketagalan Boulevard to apply pressure to Ma, but asked the students and protesters to head back to the Legislative Yuan compound, which is a few hundred meters from Ketagalan Boulevard, after the scheduled conclusion of the protest at 7pm to continue the original protest.
The leadership’s fear of a lack of manpower was never a concern with protesters packing every road near the Legislative Yuan — Ketagalan Boulevard, Zhongshan S Rd, Zhinan Rd, Qingdao E Rd and Linsen S Rd.
As the mass rally went on in front of the Presidential Office Building, students in the chamber conducted video teleconferences with foreign students who supported their movement in simultaneous rallies in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia.
Outside the Legislative Yuan compound, scheduled activities — including speeches, music performances and movie screenings, went on at Qingdao E Rd and Zhinan Rd, with students at both places watching a live broadcast of the major rally a few blocks away from giant TV screens.
Students returned to the Legislative Yuan compound after the rally ended at about 7:45pm, as members of the public headed home with no major conflicts reported.
TECH EFFECT: While Chiayi County was the oldest region in the nation, Hsinchu county and city, home of the nation’s chip industry, were the youngest, the report showed Seven of the nation’s administrative regions, encompassing 57.2 percent of Taiwan’s townships and villages, became “super-aged societies” in June, the Ministry of the Interior said in its latest report. A region is considered super-aged if 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. The ministry report showed that Taiwan had 4,391,744 people aged 65 or older as of June, representing 18.76 percent of the total population and an increase of 1,024,425 people compared with August 2018. In June, the nation’s elderly dependency ratio was 27.3 senior citizens per 100 working-aged people, an increase of 7.39 people over August 2018, it said. That
‘UNITED FRONT’: The married couple allegedly produced talk show videos for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to influence Taiwan’s politics A husband and wife affiliated with the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) were indicted yesterday for allegedly receiving NT$74 million (US$2.32 million) from China to make radio and digital media propaganda to promote the Chinese government’s political agenda and influence the outcome of Taiwan’s elections. Chang Meng-chung (張孟崇) and his wife, Hung Wen-ting (洪文婷), allegedly received a total of NT$74 million from China between 2021 and last year to promote candidates favored by Beijing, contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and election laws, the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said. The couple acted as Beijing’s propaganda mouthpiece by disparaging Hong Kong democracy activists
EARLY ARRIVALS: The first sets of HIMARS purchased from the US arrived ahead of their scheduled delivery, with troops already training on the platforms, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it spotted 35 Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, flying to the south of Taiwan proper on the way to exercises in the Pacific, a second consecutive day it has reported such activities. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the missions, reported just days before tomorrow’s US presidential election. The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Its arms sales to Taipei include a US$2 billion missile system announced last month. The MND said that from 9am yesterday,
A Control Yuan member yesterday said he would initiate an investigation into why the number of foreign nationals injured or killed in traffic incidents has nearly doubled in the past few years, and whether government agencies’ mechanisms were ineffective in ensuring road safety. Control Yuan member Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said in a news release that Taiwan has been described as a “living hell for pedestrians” and traffic safety has become an important national security issue. According to a National Audit Office report released last year, more than 780,000 foreign nationals were legally residing in Taiwan in 2019, which grew to more than