Pro-independence supporters enraged by remarks reportedly made by a retired Taiwanese general that the Taiwanese and Chinese armies should no longer be separated led a small protest outside the Executive Yuan yesterday.
The protest said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration “needed to shoulder responsibility” because the reported remarks were a result of closer cross-strait relations.
Lawmakers across party lines have almost unanimously condemned reports that retired air force General Hsia Ying-chou (夏瀛洲) told a gathering of retired military officers in China that no differences should be made between the Republic of China (ROC) Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as both are “China’s army.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
In a joint statement, pro--independence groups, including the Northern Taiwan Society, said yesterday that as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Ma needed to stringently enforce what is said and done at unofficial exchanges.
“The comment shows that one retired officer appears to have seriously misunderstood who their enemy is. He is unfit to continue enjoying publicly funded pension benefits and his [former] military rank should be reassessed,” the statement said.
The scores of protesters held up symbols of the more than 1,000 missiles aimed at Taiwan, which they said clearly represented Beijing’s intentions toward Taiwan.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) also said that Taiwan for the past six decades has been engaged in continued hostilities with the Chinese Communist Party and “it made no sense that these generals, who ate Taiwanese rice growing up and took money from Taiwanese taxpayers, would go reconcile with a ‘Chinese army’ that had missiles pointed across the Strait.”
“It’s frightening to consider what their ulterior motives are,” a statement signed by TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said.
However, there were also limited calls for support for the embattled former officers.
The unification-leaning New Party said it did not see where the former officers went wrong. Proposing unification with China and calling themselves a “Chinese army” all fulfilled tenants of the ROC Constitution “word for word,” it said.
“Their method of thinking ... fulfills the Republic of China Constitution’s article that ‘the ROC still controls all of China’s sovereignty.’ They’re holding on to this ideal; how is this wrong?” it said.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is