Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said yesterday that the characterization by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) of the way Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) described the attempted occupation of the Executive Yuan last month was a “distortion.”
In responding to questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Wen-yen (邱文彥) at a question-and-answer session on Friday, Jiang said that the storming of the Executive Yuan on the night of March 23 could have been interpreted by as a coup d’etat if it had not been dealt with immediately.
“If they had succeeded, it would have been the rioters and invaders in charge of the country’s top administrative center the next day. The country as a whole would have descended into chaos, and the international community would have thought a coup d’etat or rebellion was attempted in the Republic of China,” Jiang said.
Chen, who fielded questions after Chiu, said sarcastically that Jiang was “the glory of Taiwan, of his alma mater, the Department of Politics at National Taiwan University and Yale University” because he was still belittling the Sunflower movement by calling it a coup.
No one should call it a coup when students threw quilts over the razor wire and cut through the barbed wire blocking the entrances to the Executive Yuan to stage a peaceful sit-in, Chen said.
Sun said yesterday that the Executive Yuan felt regret that Chen had deliberately distorted Jiang’s comments.
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