A coalition of citizen groups leading the recall campaign against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi on Sunday set up a headquarters in Fu’s constituency in Hualien over the weekend to rally support, and assist eligible voters to return home and cast their vote on July 26.
At the office’s opening in Jian Township (吉安), the coalition unveiled the theme for the campaign: “Vote Yes in the Recall Vote, Love Hualien, Support Taiwan,” and invited people to write their wishes for the future of Hualien on the walls, which were decorated with pastel paper stickers.
Prominent Hualien campaigner and retired teacher Yeh Chun-lien (葉春蓮) said: “Taiwan is my country. If communist China takes over Taiwan, none of us will be able to live freely under it.”
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
“Not even Fu Kun-chi can live under Chinese rule — but he can go to live in the US or flee to Europe,” she said.
“Fu constantly misleads the public and fosters hostility toward the central government. Let us cast our recall votes on July 26 and remove Fu from office, so we can return Hualien County to the people of Hualien,” she added.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is also lending support to the recall campaign, DPP spokeswoman Han Ying (韓瑩) told a media briefing on Monday .
After undergoing training, young volunteers would head to Hualien this week to assist local citizen groups with organizing activities and canvassing the streets for the recall campaign, Han said.
The volunteers would also participate in a large rally tomorrow to rally support for the “Yes” vote to oust Fu, she said.
“Fu and his fellow KMT clique are like bad trans fat accumulating in Taiwan’s legislature,” Han said.
“We want to get people out to help in Hualien, remove Fu from office and restore the legislature to normalcy,” she added.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS