There was a massive protest today in Taiwan against the newest anti-democratic verbosity of mainland China's Communist rulers.
Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese have marched on their capital to protest Beijing's new law sanctioning the use of force if Taipei moves toward formal independence."China is a violent country. We want nothing to do with it," said protester Wu Chao-hsiung, a carpenter from Taipei. "We have to insist on the freedom to determine our own fate."
Thousands of tour buses from all over the island arrived in Taipei filled with protesters, who assembled in 10 different areas -- each route representing one of the articles of the anti-secession law.
The marchers then converged on the wide boulevard in front of the president's office. Police estimated the crowd at about a million, The Associated Press reported. Taiwan's population is 23 million.
China's state-controlled Xinhua news service spun the story this way:
Saturday's protest in Taipei initiated by the Democratic Progressive Party and other secessionist groups has aroused complaints among Taiwanese, who blame the politicians for blowing the people's money on a "political carnival" that "makes no sense."Some participants in the march shouted themselves hoarse to fan hostility against the mainland. Leading figures of Taiwan authorities and "Taiwan independence" secessionists, including former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui, were among the marchers.
The Taiwanese may not insist on independence, but clearly they do insist on freedom, and rightly so.
Posted by Alan at March 26, 2005 10:34 AM