More than 200,000 people, according to organizers’ estimates, took to the streets yesterday to join independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in a carnival-themed campaign parade, voicing their support for Ko’s “campaign for a change.”
Including samba dancers, people dressed as characters from fairy tales, giant balloons in the shape of a four-headed dragon, Mother Teresa — and the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Taiwan, George Leslie Mackay — as well as decorated floats and people holding colorful flags reading “Hug for Taipei,” thousands paraded from Liberty Square to Taipei City Hall in what appeared to be a festival celebration rather than a campaign event.
The crowd was divided into eight sections, each represented by symbolic colors: red for friendship, orange for brevity, yellow for passion, green for creativity, blue for freedom, indigo for eagerness, purple for equality and white for tolerance and dreams.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Each section was led by a float decorated with specialties and landmarks from different districts in the municipality. Although the head of the parade left Liberty Square at about 2pm, Ko, his wife and his parents, who were at the end of the parade, did not depart until 3:30pm, because the parade route was jammed.
Many marchers and onlookers cheered as Ko and his family passed by, while others were eager to point out Ko to bystanders.
Although Zhongzheng (中正) and Daan (大安) districts — where the parade passed — are considered to be Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) strongholds, many residents waved to the parade from their windows and shouted their support.
Photo: Reuters
“I would like to thank everyone for cheerfully taking part in the parade, embracing Taipei with love, welcoming the approaching mayoral election with feelings of festivity and looking forward to realizing the change,” Ko told his supporters in front of Taipei City Hall.
“Along the parade route, I saw bright colors, creativeness, and smiles on your faces. I would like to thank you for what you did with me — we succeeded in changing the political culture in Taiwan, elections are no longer about sorrow and threats; they are bright and joyful.”
Referring to his KMT rival, Sean Lien (連勝文), who cried during his own rally on Saturday, Ko said that unlike “another person” who was in tears during another parade and made it sorrowful, “I think the objective of politics is to make people happy, not sad.”
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Ko said that the parade ended at the city hall because, if he is elected, his government would be a transparent one and therefore he would “lead the people into the city hall.”
“In the past, due to differences in ideology, an invisible and cold wall had been erected in the city between you and me. The wall divided us into ‘pan-green’ and ‘pan-blue,’ pro-‘unification’ and pro-independence, nationals and imperial subjects,” Ko said. “The two sides of the wall hated each other, shouted at each other and opposed each other. We do not know when this wall appeared, or how long it has existed, but it makes our family relationships, friendships and loves suffer.”
“I am here to stand with everyone in the city, to tear down the wall with love and hugs,” he said.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Ko added that there are many challenges facing society, including an increasing wealth gap, the unequal distribution of social resources, housing injustice and injustice in education resources.
“These are all the walls we must tear down,” he said.
Police estimated that about 100,000 people attended the event.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan
RSS