Over the past week, people in Taiwan have become acustomed to associating Ketagalan Boulevard with political controversy.
With the peaceful conclusion of Saturday's rally, many people hoped that such open displays of contention had come to an end. They hadn't considered that the Taipei City Government and the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) would each claim responsibility for successfully dispersing the remaining pan-blue supporters, thus sparking an administrative feud for bragging rights.
Since Saturday night, Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
According to Chinese-language media reports, such operations involve officials from nearly every level of government, from the Presidential Office down to local police units. On Saturday night, Tsai was in charge of making "progress reports" while Yu was responsible for making "administrative system reports."
It was not immediately clear how the two types of reports differ.
Furthermore, Yu stayed at Ketagalan Boulevard until 5:30am yesterday, when the dispersion was completed.
Late last night, NPA Director-General Chang Si-liang (
Chang cited the Law on Local Government Systems (地方自治法) to Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), saying that the law gave the NPA the right to disperse the protestors along Ketagalan Boulevard.
However, this displeased Ma, as the Taipei City Government had been chiefly responsible for dealing with the protesters over the past week.
As the city government would be able to disperse the 100,000 protesters using peaceful means and minimize the impact on the city's traffic, he could not accept the NPA's request to step in during the middle of the operation, Ma said.
Ma said if the NPA insisted on carrying out the dispersion operation itself, it would have to shoulder all possible consequences. Chang decided to withdraw his request.
In reaction to the MOI's attempt to claim credit for the operation last night, Taipei City Government spokesman Wu Yu-sheng (
"Ma received orders from President Chen Shui-bian (
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
INTEL: China’s ships are mapping strategic ocean floors, including near Guam, which could aid undersea cable targeting and have military applications, a report said China’s oceanographic survey and research ships are collecting data in the Indo-Pacific region — possibly to aid submarine navigation, detect or map undersea cables, and lay naval mines — activities that could have military applications in a conflict with Taiwan or the US, a New York Times report said. The article, titled “China Surveys Seabeds Where Naval Rivals May One Day Clash,” was written by Chris Buckley and published on Thursday. Starboard Maritime Intelligence data revealed that Chinese research ships last year repeatedly scanned the ocean floor east of Taiwan’s maritime border, and about 400km east and west of Guam; “waters that
RSS