Welcome to the Daily Bloom! The Daily Bloom will be a daily shortform blog with updates on the day’s political going-ons. If something particularly exciting happening in Taiwan, we will be providing live updates on our Facebook page and Twitter account. At the end of the day, we will compile the live updates to provide a chronological timeline of the day’s events. If not, we will simply report on what happened that day, or what might be of note that happened. If you have news tips about what would be interesting to cover, send to [email protected]!
July 30, 2014
Protest held outside Taipei District Court yesterday against Premier Jiang Yi-Huah. Premier Jiang Yi-Huah, along with several high ranking police officials, has been charged with attempted murder by 23 injured protestors from the attempt to occupy the Executive Yuan during the Sunflower movement which ended with the use of police violence to evict occupiers and protestors in the vicinity. Jiang appeared in court for approximately two hours, during which time about one hundred protestors were in front of the courthouse, and three hundred police surrounding it.
Coalition for Taiwan as a Happy Country demonstrates for abolition of Control Yuan. The demonstration was in response to calls by outgoing Control Yuan president Wang Chien-shien to abolish the Control Yuan, citing its inability to halt corruption as its intended position as a branch of government is intended to do, corruption within the Control Yuan itself, and its drain on taxpayer resources. The group urged Wang to call for the Control Yuan’s abolition after his term ends on Thursday. On Tuesday, the Legislative Yuan rejected 11 of Ma Ying-Jeou’s intended candidates for the Control Yuan and approved 16 others, meaning it remains a question as to how to fill the 29 seats of the Control Yuan overall. KMT caucus whip Lin Hung-chih subsequently resigned over the rejection of these 11 candidates.
Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Lin Join-sane vows that protests against the CSSTA will not affect Taiwan-China relations. He stated in public comments that negotiations will proceed as normal and are, in fact, proceeding as before and hailed Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun’s visit to Taiwan last month, which saw heavy protest against him, as a success. The Straits Exchange Foundation is a semi-official body which carries out negotiations with mainland China subordinate to the Mainland Affairs Council of the Executive Yuan.