Civil rights advocates yesterday urged the public to show their support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong by taking part in a rally in Taipei on Sunday.
Participants are encouraged to wear black and bring laser pens, Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy member Michelle Wu (吳奕柔) told a joint news conference by several Taiwanese civic groups who are organizing the rally.
Hong Kong has been rocked by protests for more than three months, amid fears of erosion of the territory’s judicial independence after the Hong Kong government in mid-June proposed amendments that would allow residents to be extradited to China for prosecution.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) has withdrawn the bill, but the protests have not abated, amid calls for wider freedom.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) blasted statements by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office that the DPP and pro-Taiwanese independence supporters “are playing with fire and will get burnt” if they get involved in the protests.
Beijing’s attempts to suppress Hong Kongers and marginalize Taiwan would only bolster the will of Taiwanese to uphold democracy and support Hong Kongers striving for freedom, Luo said.
In related news, Che-lam Presbyterian Church in Taipei on Wednesday said it had collected more than 4,000 gas masks and 600 helmets to send to protesters in Hong Kong.
The church said it had experimented with donations which had to comply with aviation safety rules and found that construction-type helmets and gas masks arrived in Hong Kong without a problem, while a shipment of laser pointers was blocked.
The protests in Hong Kong have turned violent at times, with activists throwing Molotov cocktails at police and shining lasers in their eyes, to which police have responded with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.
“I think that the Hong Kong of today might be the Taiwan of tomorrow,” church administrative assistant Alex Ko said.
“Be it Taiwan or Hong Kong, we all must not forget that Beijing authorities do not care about human rights and reasons,” Ko said. “We must not have any faith in them. We have to make ourselves stronger and make friends with the world to face this problem together.”
“If Taiwan does not care about its democracy and its freedom, and sacrifices its own future to do business in China, I think it is very likely that Taiwan will find itself in a similar situation,” he added.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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