A Taiwanese delegation is visiting Washington in a bid to draw attention to what they called “Taiwan’s Watergate” of illegal wiretapping and abuse of power by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Scheduled to depart for the US today, the 13-member Taiwan United Nations Alliance (TAIUNA) delegation will visit Boston, New York, Washington and Philadelphia on a nine-day mission to lobby for Taiwan to join the UN.
A number of legislators and representatives from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union yesterday gave their support for TAIUNA’s “UN to Taiwan. Peace Forever” lobbying effort.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“It’s up to the people of Taiwan to save this country. We should stand up with our determined voice to let the world know that Taiwan belongs in the UN,” DPP Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) said.
Former Department of Health director and former DPP legislator Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) also gave his backing. He led TAIUNA and other groups to WHO meetings in Geneva in 2010 and last year.
Twu said the current political firestorm over the charges of influence-peddling against Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Special Investigation Division (SID) phone-tapping of top politicians and opposition officials, has much in common with the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.
“What we have is Taiwan’s Watergate. Ma is abusing his presidential powers by authorizing illegal wiretaps and secret surveillance. Ma is doing this for political reasons and to purge politicians standing in his way,” he said.
“The US Watergate case led to the resignation of [then-US] president Richard Nixon. In Taiwan’s Watergate case, the government is interfering with the judiciary, and using dirty tactics to subvert legal procedures. We have already seen the regression of our democratic system, and Ma is masterminding political purges and a power struggle,” Twu said.
Following a two-day stay in New York, where the delegation expects to be joined by up to several thousand overseas Taiwanese for a “Keep Taiwan Free, Save Our Democracy” parade, TAIUNA will head to Washington for a three-day visit.
According to Chiang Cheng-tien (江政典), TAIUNA’s youth delegate, overseas Taiwanese groups have arranged meetings with members of the US Congress on Capitol Hill.
“We have already prepared letters and reports to disseminate information and press the US Congress on Taiwan’s Watergate case, and on Ma’s abuse of power and subversion of Taiwan’s democracy,” Chiang said. “We will request that the US government express its strong concern and condemnation regarding Taiwan’s Watergate.”
TAIUNA has worked with overseas Taiwanese organizations and the Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs to organize rallies and demonstrations at the UN headquarters in Geneva, and also during the annual convening of the UN General Assembly in New York.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
SAFETY IN REGULATION: The proposal states that Chiayi should assess whether it is viable to establish such a district and draft rules to protect clients and sex workers The Chiayi City Council passed a motion yesterday to assess the viability of establishing a regulated red-light district. The council yesterday held its last session of the year, at which its fiscal 2024 budget was approved, along with 61 other proposals. The proposal to assess the viability of establishing a red-light district was put forward by independent Chiayi City Councilor Molly Yen (顏色不分藍綠支持性專區顏色田慎節). The proposal cited 2011 amendments to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulate that city and county governments can pass autonomous regulations on the sex trade to manage the industry and guarantee industry workers’ rights. A ban on the
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
STABILITY AND CHANGE: Flagging in recent polls, Ko this week pledged to maintain President Tsai’s foreign policy, with an emphasis on improving China relations Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday reiterated that he is “deep-green at heart” in response to accusations that he is pivoting his campaign to align closer with the ideology of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the face of flagging polls. Ko made the remark at an agricultural policy conference in Taipei, repeating his comments from an interview with CTS News a day earlier. Ko told the CTS host that he would continue to pursue President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national defense and foreign policy in general, but with an emphasis on establishing a rapport with
RSS