A group of pro-Taiwanese independence organizations yesterday urged President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to have courage and get tough in dealing with international affairs.
Chilly Chen (陳峻涵), office director of the 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign and the event’s main organizer, said that China has been making belligerent moves in recent weeks, with warplane flying close to Taiwan’s territory and other military “threats” infringing upon the nation’s sovereignty, while attempting to suppress the voice of Tsai’s government and that of Taiwanese in the international community.
“We are here to tell Tsai that the public support her,” Chen said.
“We want Tsai to have courage and to get tough. She must not fear the bullying and threats by China,” he said.
“In the event of China making a military incursion into Taiwan, we would ask Tsai to declare independence,” Chen said.
“In that situation, Taiwanese and our armed forces will rally to fight against a Chinese invasion and other nations will come to our aid,” he said.
The groups performed a skit on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building, waving flags promoting Taiwanese patriotism.
A woman in the group was play-acting as Tsai in her role as the nation’s commander-in-chief, wearing a Tsai mask, a flak jacket and an army helmet, which was what the president wore while inspecting military drills this year.
Standing on top of a wooden stand, the woman was hoisted above the crowd by the other participants to lead cheers and slogans advocating independence.
“The skit was meant to show that the President Tsai character is held in high regard by Taiwanese to lead the nation,” Chen said.
“We want to show that Tsai has the support of the majority of Taiwanese when she builds official ties with the US, resists military threats from China and works toward making Taiwan an independent, sovereign nation,” he said.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS