Taiwan independence advocates yesterday held a protest near the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, calling on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to change the nation’s name to “Taiwan,” amid heightened international support.
Protesters raised the flag of the Taiwan Republic, one of the groups organizing the event annually on Sept. 8.
Officials in many countries in the past few months made statements in support of Taiwan’s participation in international events, and a Japanese broadcaster introduced the Taiwanese team at the Tokyo Olympics by its proper name, Taiwan Republic Office chairman Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) said.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Republic
“Taiwan is enjoying much international support. In many countries there has been talk about Taiwan, rarely referring to it as the ‘Republic of China,’” Chen said, adding that rectifying the name would lead to Taiwan’s full inclusion in the international community.
The Free Taiwan Party, the Taiwan Association of University Professors, the Taiwan United Nations Alliance and the Taiwan Independence Association also took part in the event.
Taiwan Republic founder Peter Wang (王獻極) said that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the Treaty of San Francisco, in which Japan relinquished its claim to Taiwan after World War II, adding that the date should be celebrated as “Taiwan Independence Day.”
After the ceremony, some protesters approached the Presidential Office Building, resulting in a brief standoff with police.
Wang later said he wanted to give President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) a sign saying: “The Presidential Office of Taiwan Nation.”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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