Hundreds of people from Taiwan’s Burmese community yesterday rallied in central Taipei to denounce the coup in Myanmar, singing defiant songs and holding white and red roses in mourning for those who have died protesting the military.
Taiwan is home to about 40,000 people originally from Myanmar, most of whom are ethnic Chinese. Some are descendants of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops trapped in Myanmar, then called Burma, at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Others have come more recently, fleeing repression and anti-Chinese sentiment.
Dressed in white, the color of mourning, holding pictures of detained Burmese State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and signs condemning the coup, about 400 people protested at Liberty Square, mainly Sino-Burmese, but also non-Chinese Burmese citizens, Taiwanese and Hong Kongers.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
“People in Myanmar are once again forced to live under the dark shadow of the military regime. As an emigrant from Myanmar, today we gather here to pay tribute to our fellow countrymen and those fallen heroes,” Yangon-born Thomas Chen, 28, a teacher of Burmese at Taipei’s Soochow University, told the crowd.
People sang We Won’t Be Satisfied Until the End of the World, the Burmese-language anthem from the country’s 1988 pro-democracy uprising, brutally put down by the military government of the time, and bowed their heads in prayer to remember the dead.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) accused China of supporting the coup.
Beijing denies this, although many people in Myanmar view China as supporting the junta that seized power on Feb. 1.
“We know that behind this military coup there are forces from [the] Chinese Communist [Party]. This is the thing that people can’t stand the most,” Hung said.
Sunday last week saw arson attacks against 32 Chinese-invested companies in the Yangon suburb of Hlaingthaya, although demonstrators played down fears of wider anti-Chinese feelings.
“Many ethnic Chinese are on the streets protesting against the coup,” said Wei Lin, who lived through anti-Chinese riots in Yangon in 1967. “People know how to distinguish between Chinese-Burmese and the Chinese government.”
The Overseas Community Affairs Council last week warned Taiwanese businesses operating in Myanmar of the risky situation there after a Taiwanese company was damaged in a fire amid protests.
The nation’s representative office in Myanmar has advised Taiwanese firms to fly the national flag at their premises.
Additional reporting by staff writer
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS