Taiwanese independence advocates yesterday held a protest outside the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters in Taipei, saying that KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) is selling out Taiwan and conspiring with China to oust pro-Taiwan politicians.
The protest was headed by Taiwan Republic chairman Chilly Chen (陳峻涵), with independence advocates throwing eggs onto the pavement outside the building.
The advocates called the protest after Chu’s remarks in the wake of the recall of Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) that the KMT would target other lawmakers as well.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Chu said that those who “stand up against China, safeguarding Taiwan” would be targets.
“Elected politicians must face their own constituents, they should not engage in political ideology,” Chu said.
Chilly Chen said that Chu is colluding with Beijing and that he made his statements on behalf of the Chinese government.
“We have reasons to suspect that there is a conspiracy,” he said.
During her Double Ten National Day address, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that Taiwan must defend its sovereignty and democracy amid unprecedented challenges brought by China’s increasing military coercion, Chilly Chen said, adding that polls show that 80 percent of the public support that position.
“Why is Chu and the KMT going against the will of Taiwanese?” Chilly Chen asked, adding that the remarks resembled those made by Beijing in the past months.
The KMT and pan-blue forces have said that one of their targets might be Independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐), who at a separate event chided Chu’s remarks.
“A worldwide alliance of democratic nations, which includes Taiwan, must seriously face up to the challenges” China poses, he said.
“The KMT continues to engage in politics of hatred... We shall face it directly to fight against the recall campaigns,” Lim said.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling