Thousands gathered in Taipei yesterday to support Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who has been indicted on corruption charges, and to voice anger over what they say is “political persecution” by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.
On a wintry and drizzly day, supporters of the party assembled at Liberty Square, with many spilling onto the adjacent Zhongshan S Road, to show their solidarity with the former Taipei mayor.
Organizers claimed more than 150,000 people took part in the event.
Photo: CNA
Against a stage backdrop showing a picture of a solemn-looking President William Lai (賴清德) and the Presidential Office Building, many attendees decried what organizers said was the political persecution of Ko by the government.
TPP Acting Chairman and Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said the main purpose of the rally was to “call out the green authoritarianism.”
“Regardless of party affiliations, the people of Taiwan should come together to demand that President Lai stop reaching his hands into the judiciary and give us back a pure and independent judicial system,” he added.
Photo: CNA
Ko, 65, was indicted by Taipei prosecutors on Dec. 26 on charges of bribery and other forms of corruption in connection with real estate dealings during his second term as Taipei mayor from 2018 to 2022. He is currently detained.
He is also charged with embezzling political donations to the TPP during his campaign for president in last year’s election, and is facing jail time of up to 28.5 years.
Ko received 3.69 million votes in the election, behind Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), who received 4.67 million votes.
Photo: CNA
Ko resigned as TPP chairman on Jan. 1.
After accepting the party’s leadership, Huang called for the rally yesterday, which was Judicial Day in Taiwan.
Several lawmakers from the largest opposition party, the KMT, which has worked with the TPP to push through several bills in the legislature, also showed their support at the event.
Among the KMT lawmakers present were Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介), Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) and Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強).
Hsieh accused the DPP government of using the judicial system as a tool for political gain, adding that if the government had targeted Ko, then it might go after him or any other person.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) called the TPP’s event “ridiculous” during a news conference yesterday morning.
DPP spokesperson Wu Cheng (吳崢) last week said that it was “regrettable” that the TPP and KMT seek to “attack the judicial system” and “rationalize [their] corrupt practices,” when their members were embroiled in legal cases.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS