Saturday, November 08, 2008

Taiwan + Nerd News: University Students Stage Anti-Ma Protest

Hey! Finally some student action I can support:

Some 500 college students staged a sit-in yesterday in front of the Executive Yuan over the police response to protests against Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin’s visit.

“The protest will continue through the night, into tomorrow and [through] tomorrow ... until our three appeals are accepted,” said Lee Ming-tsung, the group’s spokesman and an associate professor of sociology at National Taiwan University.

The group demanded in a written petition that President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan apologize for the use of excessive force by police, that National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Wang Cho-chiun and National Security Bureau Director Tsai Chao-ming step down and that the government scrap the Parade and Assembly Law.

. . . “When I saw on TV that protesters were being treated violently by the police, I felt really confused. How can the police be violent toward people who haven’t even broken the law and are just carrying the national flag?” said Chang Yi-shih, a student at National Taipei University.

More than 1,000 people, many of whom were professors and students, had signed the three petitions and the group was still collecting signatures, Lee said.
I really like this quotation from professor Lee: “Do we really have to reduce the standard of democracy and freedom in Taiwan to the low level of authoritarian China for the sake of enhancing cross-strait economic ties?”

Exactly. Preach it!

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