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TAO visit shows fragility of democracy: symposium

Monday, 30 June 2014 07:32 Taipei Times

National Tsing Hua University student Dennis Wei speaks at a Taiwan Association of University Professors symposium in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

The recently concluded visit of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) exposed the danger of the President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration’s attempt to merge “two distinctively different civilizations and the fragility of Taiwan’s democracy and civic society,” panelists at a symposium said yesterday.

“Never think that the tragedy of the 228 Incident cannot happen in the 21st century,” retired National Taiwan University professor Kenneth Lin (林向愷) told the symposium, organized by the Taiwan Association of University Professors.

Protesters, police scuffle outside Legislative Yuan

Friday, 27 June 2014 08:20 Taipei Times

Protesters scuffle with police outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday as lawmakers were scheduled to review the draft bill on the free economic pilot zones.
Photo: CNA

Dozens of activists vaulted the front gate of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning in protest over the controversial free economic pilot zones draft bill being put on yesterday’s legislative agenda, but were dispersed by police, who handcuffed and arrested some of the demonstrators about an hour after they jumped the fence.

A group of about 30 people, representing at least five activist groups, including the Restoration of Taiwan Social Justice, the Wing of Radical Politics, the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan and Democracy Kuroshio, climbed over the front gate before a plenary session that was scheduled to begin at 9am to protest against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) placing the free economic pilot zones bill on the agenda and its alleged intention to ram it through.