Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

No military role in protests: bureau

Taipei Times

Military spokesman David Lo yesterday denied that National Security Council Secretary-General King Pu-tsung suggested that the military should intervene in major demonstrations.
Photo: Taipei Times

The National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday rejected a report that National Security Council Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) suggested that the military should intervene in and handle major demonstrations.

King was accused of overreaching his authority earlier this month when he visited the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau.

‘Lai effect’ accents evolving views

Paul Lin 林保華

During his visit to Shanghai last week, Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) broke out of the constraints imposed by China on its relations with Taiwan by openly talking about Taiwanese independence and the 1989 Tiananmen Square student movement. Lai dared to do so because he adheres to Taiwan-centric values and has always been concerned about human rights issues.

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has done many things to sell the nation out, leading to the outbreak of the student-led Sunflower protest movement. As young people in Taiwan take matters into their own hands and come forward to salvage the nation’s prospects, Lai has had the courage to seize the opportunity by speaking out in China, confident that there is a strong current of public opinion to back him up.

KMT-CCP twins’ despotism in vain

Taipei Times Editorial

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are like identical twins. They think the same way, use the same methods and say the same things.

When local civic organizations began to push for a referendum on the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City, among the communities in the plant’s evacuation zone — Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, and Yilan City — the KMT tried to play down the scale of the opposition by saying that it is a national rather than a local issue, and that a referendum should be national. The hope was that regardless of how much opposition there was in the communities included in the evacuation zone, they would be outvoted at the national level.

TAO remark draws strong reply

Taipei Times

Democratic Progressive Party Taichung City councilors Yang Tien-chung, Lai Chia-wei, Chen Shu-hua and Ho Wen-hai, left to right, hold a sign saying: “Taiwan’s future should be decided by the people of Taiwan” at the city council yesterday.
Photo: Tang Tsai-hsin, Taipei Times

A statement by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Fan Liqing (范麗青) that the future of Taiwan should be decided by “all Chinese people” sparked furious responses across the nation from activists, politicians and private citizens who say the future of Taiwan can only be decided by Taiwanese.

“The remarks made by the Chinese government are no different from masturbation,” Sunflower movement leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said on his Facebook. “It’s ironic that the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] says Taiwan’s future should be decided by ‘the Chinese people,’ when ‘the Chinese people’ [in China] have been stripped of the right to choose their government.”

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