The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday held events nationwide urging people to vote against all four questions in the referendum on Saturday next week.
On the ballot are questions related to banning the importation of pork containing traces of the leanness-enhancing additive ractopamine, relocation of a natural gas terminal project to protect algal reefs off Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), activating the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) and holding referendums alongside elections.
Near roads and streets in cities and counties across Taiwan, DPP members gathered to urge people to vote “no” on the questions.
Photo: CNA
Separately yesterday, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said it would on Sunday march to rally voters to support all four referendum items.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), and media personality and Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) are to speak on the referendum questions before the march starts, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Lin Chia-hsing (林家興) said.
The march would start at Taipei’s Liberty Square, before meeting up with other groups participating in the “Autumn Struggle” in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, Lin said.
Photo: CNA
The Autumn Struggle is an annual march organized by labor groups.
The KMT has previously said it would host a rally and “sleepover” at Liberty Square on Friday next week in hopes of bolstering voter turnout.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over