Politicians yesterday lined up to condemn the violent attack on Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Huang Chi-chuan (黃啟川) on Thursday by supporters of the DPP city government.
They denounced the act as an insult to democracy and urged law enforcement officials to promptly arrest the assailants.
The main opposition KMT, of which Huang is a member, said it regretted the outbreak of violence and called on Kaohsiung Mayor and DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) to punish unruly party members.
"It is unbelievable to witness the council speaker being beaten by protesters while walking to his office in broad daylight," KMT spokeswoman Kuo Su-chun (郭素春). "The act is a shame on democracy and must not be tolerated."
Hundreds of protesters on Thursday gathered in front of the city council chamber to protest the council's proposal to abolish the city government's information department.
They said the decision is a ploy by the opposition-controlled council to embarrass the local DPP government and gave Huang several punches to the head as he stepped toward the council hall.
The speaker burst into tears after entering his office, flanked by security guards. He later examined in a local hospital and is in stable condition.
Kou said the protesters should have used reason, instead of fists, to express their grievances and pressed Hsieh to punish the attackers.
The protest was organized by councilors from the DPP and its ally, the TSU.
Hsieh has said he will expel party members who participated in the attack.
PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) said he was appalled by the incident which he added tainted the country's image as a democracy.
"Democracy is a way of life," Soong told reporters.
"Taiwan will have a hard time telling the world it has been upholding the principle [of democracy] by using its fists."
After an initial probe, the DPP maintained that the violence was purely accidental and had nothing to do with the party.
Acting DPP Secretary-general Hsu Jen-tu (
He said the party would hold a meeting on Monday to decide if DPP Kaohsiung councilor candidates were indirectly responsible for the attack.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS