Ending his final day of campaigning that took him from the south of the island to the north, independent candidate James Soong (
Yesterday's rallies, in Kaohsiung, Taichung and Taipei, used the title "Mobilizing the people to send Soong to the Presidential Office."
Soong also, for the first time, brought out his eldest son, Allen Soong (宋楚瑜), in addition to other members of his family, in what was seen as an attempt to play on the sentiments of family values.
At their final rally appearance in Taipei, the elder Soong was joined by his wife, Chen Wan-shui (
Campaigners said the purpose of the song was to encourage voters not to vote for someone who would "cause instability."
"I am giving up my `small love' [of the family] in order to give James Soong up to all the people, to allow all parents to be able to see their children grow up in peace and safety," Soong's wife said.
Throughout the rallies, the crowds -- which in Taipei drew what some estimated was as many as 300,000 people -- continued to shout: "Dump Lien, save Soong!"
Many more people gathered around the Taipei Municipal Stadium, apparently unable to get inside due to the huge crowd.
The "dump-save" slogans were matched by thousands of red flags, also bearing the words "Dump Lien and save Soong," along with Taiwan's national flag and tens of thousands of campaign flags.
The throng of supporters in the area made the final night of Soong's presidential campaign a sea of red flags.
"I will reform [Taiwan's] corrupt politics," Soong pledged to the crowd.
"I have been leading the race from the beginning," he said. "But the KMT is doing everything it can to push me down. The KMT can do this but it can never crack down on the resolution of Taiwan's people to fight for democracy."
The one surprise of the day came in Kaohsiung, when Soong's eldest son, Allen, who last December found himself involved in his father's financial scandal, appeared for the first time on the campaign platform, drawing a cheer from the crowd.
"I came back to show my support for my father," he said.
James Soong then said that three of five pieces of real estate in California owned his son -- which had been at the center of another scandal in February -- have already been sold.
Other star supporters at Soong's rally included former justice minister Liao Cheng-hao (廖正豪), who checked out of a Taipei hospital earlier in the day for the occasion, and former legislative speaker Liu Sung-fan (劉松藩).
Liao appealed to supporters not to be influenced by vote buyers.
"You can take their money, but vote for Soong," he said.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
South Korea yesterday said that it was removing loudspeakers used to blare K-pop and news reports to North Korea, as the new administration in Seoul tries to ease tensions with its bellicose neighbor. The nations, still technically at war, had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. It said in June that Pyongyang stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had become a major nuisance for South Korean residents, a day after South Korea’s loudspeakers fell silent. “Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,”
CHINA’s BULLYING: The former British prime minister said that he believes ‘Taiwan can and will’ protect its freedom and democracy, as its people are lovers of liberty Former British prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday said Western nations should have the courage to stand with and deepen their economic partnerships with Taiwan in the face of China’s intensified pressure. He made the remarks at the ninth Ketagalan Forum: 2025 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prospect Foundation in Taipei. Johnson, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, said he had seen Taiwan’s coastline on a screen on his indoor bicycle, but wanted to learn more about the nation, including its artificial intelligence (AI) development, the key technology of the 21st century. Calling himself an