Nearly 1,000 people unhappy with the forced dispersal of protesters from outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei early yesterday following the ending of the Sunflower movement occupation attempted to besiege the Zhongzheng First Police Precinct last night, sparking a tense face-off and sporadic clashes with officers.
The stand-off was ongoing as of press time.
The protesters demanded that precinct chief Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧) apologize and step down for reneging on his pledge to not forcibly disperse protesters from the square outside the Legislative Yuan.
Photo: CNA
They also asked that Fang appear before them to explain his actions.
As the number of protesters swelled, hundreds of police officers were deployed to the front gate of the precinct building, and anti-riot police were on standby.
Some of the protesters scattered ghost money, normally seen as currency for the dead, around the precinct doors.
Fang appeared outside the precinct at about 7pm, with Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) standing behind him, and told the crowd that if he had done anything wrong, he would be willing to be transferred or resign.
He said he would apologize if he had caused a public misunderstanding, and he also said that no one had been injured during the eviction process.
His remarks did little to appease the protesters.
Hau said last night that he would not ask Fang to resign because the officer had done nothing wrong.
Members of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan and their supporters remained in the plaza outside the front of the Legislative Yuan overnight after student-led protesters from the Sunflower movement left the legislature’s main chamber early on Thursday evening.
Despite a promise from Fang about 2:30am yesterday that police officers would not use heavy-handed methods to clear the area, police began picking up demonstrators and moving them away from the square at 7am.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
‘A SERIOUS THREAT’: Japan has expressed grave concern over the Strait’s security over the years, which demonstrated Tokyo’s firm support for peace in the area, an official said China’s military drills around Taiwan are “incompatible” with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday. “Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important for the international community, including Japan,” Iwaya told Wang during a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Kuala Lumpur. “China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan are incompatible with this,” a statement released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday cited Iwaya as saying. The Foreign Ministers’ Meetings are a series of diplomatic
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and