The campaign to protect Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) from a recall vote finished its final weekend with supporters’ groups and pan-green camp politicians attending an event in Taichung yesterday.
With the recall vote scheduled for Saturday, attendees gathered in the morning at Qingshui Zushi Temple in Longjing District (龍井), most of them joining Chen in the “100 Hours March, Walk the Final Mile for Democracy” event.
Among the groups at the event were the Humanistic Education Foundation, Taiwan Society, Taiwan Youth Foundation, Deng Liberty Foundation and Union of Taiwan Teachers.
Photo: Ho Tsung-han, Taipei Times
“There has been a series of revenge recall campaigns,” Humanistic Education Foundation executive director Joanna Feng (馮喬蘭) said. “Basically, they have all attacked civic groups and we must oppose these vicious, politically motivated groups that are trying to wreck the foundations of our democratic system.”
Local Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors and DPP lawmakers from Taichung, including Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) and Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純), joined Chen on the walk yesterday.
Chen has done a lot at the legislature and in service of his local constituents in the past two years, Tsai said.
“This revenge recall is based on lies and smears on Chen’s character,” Tsai said. “Character assassination is the opposition’s means of inciting hatred and grabbing power.”
Taiwan Association of University Professors chairman Hsu Wen-tang (許文堂) said that the recall campaign “is groups rousing up hatred and disharmony warring against people upholding justice and democratic values.”
The recall effort, which has been backed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians, was initiated by Yang Wen-yuan (楊文元), who said he voted for Chen in January last year, but regrets that choice.
Chen’s opponents say he has behaved outrageously in the legislature and supported the government’s decision to lift a ban on imports of pork containing residue of the feed additive ractopamine.
There are 291,122 eligible voters in Chen’s constituency, Taichung’s Second District.
For a recall vote to pass, at least 25 percent of eligible voters — or 72,781 in Chen’s case — must vote in favor of it, and they must outnumber those who vote against it.
Additional reporting by CNA
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by