A group of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors yesterday urged the city government and council to designate March 10 "Tibet Day" to show support for Tibet's pursuit of autonomy.
The day is already observed in many countries around the world to mark the "Tibetan Uprising" against Chinese rule on March 10, 1959, that resulted in the killing of thousands of Tibetans by the Chinese military and forced the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, into exile.
DPP Taipei City councilors Chen Chia-ming (
PHOTO: TSAI CHANG-SHENG, TAIPEI TIMES
They urged Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (
Tashi Tsering, vice president of the Tibetan Youth Association, expressed the hope that Taiwan, which he said has helped Tibet a lot, would continue supporting Tibet until it achieves independence.
Beijing has been condemned around the world for its military suppression of demonstrations held by Tibetan monks to mark the 49th anniversary of the 1959 uprising.
A group of Tibetans has staged a sit-in at Taipei's Liberty Square over the past few days to protest the crackdown and the group said it planned to extend the sit-in for another week to March 30.
Also yesterday, the city councilors called on the country's voters `to cast ballots in two referendums on joining the UN to be held alongside today's presidential election.
They said voters should express their opposition to Beijing's "one China" principle by backing the referendums, following a recent claim by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) that their passage would change the "status quo" in which he said "Taiwan and the mainland belong to one China."
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
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taiwan is bracing for a political shake-up as a majority of directly elected lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) face the prospect of early removal from office in an unprecedented wave of recall votes slated for July 26 and Aug. 23. The outcome of the public votes targeting 26 KMT lawmakers in the next two months — and potentially five more at later dates — could upend the power structure in the legislature, where the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) currently hold a combined majority. After denying direct involvement in the recall campaigns for months, the
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