Penghu Crash: DPP legislator calls for commissioner to vacate position

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

On Wednesday, Penghu Commissioner Wang Chien-fa (王乾發) was lambasted for a planned visit to China that critics said showed a disregard for the potential damage to lives and properties caused by Typhoon Matmo, which brought fierce winds and torrential rain to the nation, and caused 17 injuries between late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

Wang’s scheduled trip to Shenzhen, in China’s Guangdong Province, was not discovered until the commissioner was found taking the first flight back to Penghu yesterday morning after a plane crash in the county killed 48 passengers and injured 10 on Wednesday night.

Ko defends policy on public housing

‘CAN’T DO’ ATTITUDE:The independent candidate rejected Sean Lien’s criticism that the policy was not feasible, saying his rival lacks the determination to tackle the issue
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that his campaign platform on public housing, which aims to build 50,000 rent-only units in the city, is “workable” and that his main rival’s criticism shows “his unwillingness to tackle the housing issue.”

“Public housing is a difficult task, but a mayor has to have the determination to resolve it and has to be at least aggressive,” Ko said during a campaign stop at the Social Housing Advocacy Consortium, in response to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Sean Lien’s (連勝文) campaign office statement that Ko’s plan was not feasible.

Ex-DPP leader Lin launches a reform institute

PEOPLE RULE:Lin I-hsiung announced a foundation that intends to change the laws about referendums and recalls so that ‘people can determine their fate’
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) has established a new foundation to promote amending the Referendum Act (公民投票法), the Civil Servant Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and the Constitution so that “Taiwanese people could determine their own fate through a democratic process.”

The People Rule Foundation (人民作主教育基金會) plans to launch its first official event — a march around the nation — in September, beginning in the eastern counties of Taitung and Hualien, the foundation said in its mission statement issued yesterday.

Activists outraged over raid at hotel

CHINA OFFICIAL VISITS:：Activists said that they were deprived of their freedom and told to vacate their rooms at the Novotel just because Zhang Zhijun was visiting
By Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter
Thu, Jun 26, 2014 - Page 1

Activists yesterday accused the government of abuse of power after a group of “unidentified people” charged into their rooms at the Novotel in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and demanded that they move out before China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) was to meet his Taiwanese counterpart, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦), at the hotel.

Rights activist and attorney Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) condemned the government and Novotel over the hotel’s treatment of him as a guest.

EDITORIAL: World Cup fever typifies Taiwanese

The great urge to learn everything about soccer during World Cup tournaments has become the norm in Taiwan every four years.

If a visitor was to browse the news, they might assume that the nation’s craze for soccer was similar to that in other parts of the world, going hand-in-hand with a professional soccer league and a couple of star players.

That is not the case. Taiwan ranks 176th among 207 members in the latest FIFA world ranking. It has neither a pro league, nor any soccer stars to speak of. The sport, like many others, has never caught the public’s attention and perhaps nine out of 10 Taiwanese have never watched a non-World Cup soccer game.

TCU accuses ministry of applying nonexistant rule

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The Ministry of the Interior has refused to approve the application of a civic association because the association did not include either “the Republic of China (ROC)” or “Taiwan” in its name, founders of the group said yesterday, adding that they would like the ministry to reject the application.

In its replies to applications submitted by the Taiwan Citizen Union (TCU) on March 31 and April 14, the ministry twice demanded that the organization to revise its name by adding “society” (社, 學會) or “association” (會, 協會, 協進會) as well as either “ROC” or “Taiwan,” TCU cofounder Lin Feng-cheng (林峰正) said on the union’s Facebook page.

Sunflower leaders to form new activist organization

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Sunflower movement leaders Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) yesterday announced the establishment of a new social activist group, Taiwan March (島國前進), saying the group would focus on the “unfinished business” of the three-week-long movement’s goal of promoting “direct democracy.”

“It seemed to us that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] have not learned a thing [from the Sunflower movement] and they still refuse to listen to the public,” Chen told a press conference.

Taipei to ask Hanoi for riot reparations

DAMAGE CONTROL:：The government aims to use bilateral pacts to find a legal basis to seek indemnity for damages to Taiwanese citizens or property in the Vietnam riots
By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Chris Wang  /  Staff reporters, with CNA
Fri, May 16, 2014 - Page 1

Taiwan is looking to cooperate with other countries affected by the recent anti-China protests in Vietnam to solicit compensation for the damage caused to foreign factories during the unrest sparked by Hanoi’s territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said yesterday.

Lin told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee that the ministry is studying two agreements signed between Taiwan and Vietnam on judicial assistance and investment protection to find a legal basis for compensation claims.

MOFA condemns protests against China in Vietnam

RIOT ACT:The foreign ministry urged Hanoi to protect Taiwanese there after protests over China’s territorial spat with Vietnam devolved into a rampage on foreign factories
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The government yesterday condemned the violent anti-China protests in Vietnam over Hanoi’s ongoing territorial dispute with Beijing, demanding that the Vietnamese government get the situation under control after the factories and offices of Taiwanese businesses in the country’s southeast were damaged during what it called “acts of rioting” by the protesters.

Speaking at a hastily convened press conference yesterday morning, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) was still trying to gather information on the factories damaged in the unrest in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces that ensued after an anti-Chinese protest devolved into a violent attack against foreign businesses on Tuesday afternoon.

Sunflower lessons go wanting: groups

PUSHING BOUNDARIES:：Civic groups said the KMT amendment to tighten petitioner requirements was against the Constitutional right to election and recall
By Loa Iok-sin and Chris Wang  /  Staff reporters
Tue, May 13, 2014 - Page 3

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposal to tighten rules for recalling legislators may face strong resistance from the public, civic groups said yesterday.

“On March 18, hundreds of people broke into the Legislative Yuan complex and took control of the legislative floor for nearly a month because we believed that our representative democracy is not working properly,” said Chen Wei-chen (陳韋辰), a member of the Black Island Nation Youth Front (黑色島國青年聯盟), one of the central groups that took part in the Sunflower movement.

Taipei police ‘violating’ press freedom

EXCESSIVE FORCE:Media representatives said Taipei police are ignoring the Constitution by impeding the media’s right to report during anti-government protests
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Representatives from media worker groups and academics yesterday accused the Taipei City Police Department of using excessive force against reporters in recent protests and trying to evade public scrutiny of what they described as police’s infringement of freedom of the press.

The violent eviction of reporters on March 24, when thousands of protesters occupied the Executive Yuan compound, and on April 28, during an overnight antinuclear sit-in on Zhongxiao W Road, violated the media’s right to report, the representatives told a press conference.

English Web site on Taiwan to tap global audience

THOUGHT-PROVOKING:With foreign correspondents exiting the country, Tsai Ing-wen has created an English Web site to write about the Taiwan issues that matter
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday announced the official launch of an English-language opinion and analysis Web site about Taiwan with the aim of sharing perspectives on a wide range of issues.

The Web site, Thinking Taiwan, intends to show diverse perspectives on various issues — beyond political and economic issues that usually dominate international headlines about Taiwan — to an international audience, Tsai said during the site’s launch ceremony.

EDITORIAL: Sunday’s rallies missed the point

Tue, May 06, 2014 - Page 8

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the New Party held separate rallies on Sunday with similar themes, the former calling for social stability and support for the police and the latter championing the rule of law.

Organizers and participants argued that the protests of the past months, including the Sunflower movement, the various “occupation” and “passing-by” campaigns targeting different government agencies and the Legislative Yuan siege, were illegal and lacked respect for the rule of law.

Sunflowers changed everything: Tsai

FLOWERING YOUTH:：Tsai said the next generation had shown it had come of age and was ready to lead, and had shown China it could not rely on the CCP-KMT platform alone
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter
Tue, May 06, 2014 - Page 3

The three-week-long Sunflower movement has changed both the way the Taiwanese look at domestic politics and China’s approach if it wants to engage the people of this nation in the future, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told an interviewer yesterday.

“[The Sunflower movement] was the first time that a social movement with such a scale of mass participation was able to generate so much energy without serious physical confrontations and violence — except for the government’s bloody crackdown against the protesters at the Executive Yuan,” Tsai said in an interview with TV host Cheng Hung-yi (鄭鴻儀), which aired last night.

Countersuit filed against Alex Tsai

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

A mother and son yesterday filed a lawsuit against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) in Taipei for destruction of property while two lawyers accused him of attempted murder — all stemming from an car accident triggered by a protest outside the Legislative Yuan.

Lin Shu-yen (林淑燕) and her son, Chu Yu-hsuan (朱育玄), filed a lawsuit at Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, accusing Tsai of ramming his car into Lin’s vehicle on Friday last week and fleeing the scene.

Chiayi man questioned over ‘Occupy MRT’ campaign

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Taipei police yesterday questioned a man for allegedly organizing an online campaign for an “Occupy the Taipei MRT” protest, amid criticism that the government is resorting to clamping down on “thought crime” to curb freedom of expression.

Police located the man, surnamed Chou, a resident of Chiayi County’s Fanlu Township (番路), through the Internet protocol address he used to post a message about the campaign. They said the campaign is against the law.

Lin ends anti-nuclear hunger strike

‘UNPRECEDENTED STRUGGLE’:：The antinuclear activist thanked all those who backed his fast and opposed a controversial power plant, but said more fights are ahead
By Chris Wang and Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter
Thu, May 01, 2014 - Page 1

Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) yesterday afternoon announced the end of his hunger strike against the continued construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and said he was grateful for the “phenomenal antinuclear effort” of Taiwanese over the past two weeks.

Lin said he would continue to fight what he called the injustice of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.

Police warn against protests on MRT

By Chris Wang and Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporters
Thu, May 01, 2014 - Page 1

The Taipei City Police Department and Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC, 台北捷運公司) yesterday warned antinuclear protesters against an “Occupy the Mass Rapid Transit” (MRT) campaign announced on the Internet, saying such a protest would violate the Criminal Code and participants could face up to five years in prison.

The campaign details, which were posted online yesterday, called for 33,000 people boarding MRT trains on the Tamsui Line at the same time to protest against what organizers said was the government’s failure to respond to the public’s demand that the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) be halted.

NUCLEAR POWER DEBATE: Lin I-hsiung ‘in a stable condition’ in hospital: supporters

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) remained hospitalized at National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital yesterday as the nation awaited his next move after he went on a seven-day hunger strike from Tuesday last week until Monday.

“Lin is in stable condition, physically and mentally, and he called for all participants in the [antinuclear] protests to adhere to the principle of nonviolence,” Lin’s support group posted on his Web site last night.

NUCLEAR POWER DEBATE: Majority wants no plebiscite threshold

POLL PRESSURE:：The Taiwan Thinktank said judging by the results of a recent poll, the mainstream public opinion on amending the Referendum Act has been made clear
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter
Wed, Apr 30, 2014 - Page 3

The majority of respondents in a public opinion poll released yesterday supported eliminating the threshold stipulated in the Referendum Act (公民投票法), as well as a simple format for referendum questions to avoid hidden political agendas.

The Taiwan Thinktank found that 64.8 percent of the respondents agreed that the current high threshold — which requires the participation of 50 percent of eligible voters and with at least half of them casting a “yes” vote for the referendum to pass — should be eliminated, with only 22.4 percent not agreeing and 12.8 percent declining to answer, the think tank’s deputy executive director, Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), told a news conference.