Chen Yunlin coming 11/3; legal protests unlikely
The date is set, according to UDN, but no source is named. And here's the kicker: according to UDN, blues have already applied under the The Parade and Assembly Law to have rights to the areas around the two most likely meeting points between Ma/Wu and Chen, namely the Taipei Guest House and the old KMT headquarters, now the Chang Yung-Fa Foundation. And that's been approved, UDN says.
The plan is to use this application to road rights to prevent green protesters from assembling. But as I understand it, if site locations have already had permits approved, that means people CAN go there to assemble or have a protest. You can only keep people out if they DON'T have that permit.
So even the blues flood the area with enthusiastic supporters, which would really only likely lead to scuffles green and blue supporters, I think this plan would be self-defeating. More likely, I think, is that UDN just made this part up.
Update: Looks like 11/3 may only be a suggestion date, though UDN could have a source that confirmed the Chinese agreed.
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I would call this a buffer zone for violence. No doubt about it. This is a recipe for much tragic confrontation between Taiwanese of all stripes.
If PandaMa had any sense of leadership, he would cancel this meeting to prevent the inevitable from happening. Of course, the reality is that he is not a leader by any stretch of the imagination and he will let this confrontation take place.
And if he insists on meeting with Chen, the least he could do is to hold the talks at a secret and private location to avoid any bloodshed.
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I have to wonder whether the whole Tainan incident was an intentional setup to justify cracking down on the planned 10/25 demonstrations. The government sent a man high up in the PRC Taiwan policy apparatus, well known for making inflammatory statements against Taiwan, into one of the greenest cities in Taiwan with minimal protection, where he promptly shot off his mouth in public.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict what ended up happening. So either the government is even more incompetent than I thought, or the whole thing was planned as a trap for the opposition to step into.
When Ma transited through the US in Los Angeles earlier this year, the street in front of the area that protestors had permits for (originally a no parking zone) was filled with large vehicles with handicapped parking permits - all of which had strangely been issued on the same day. The vehicles almost completely blocked the protestors in the zone from the view of the hotel where Ma was staying.
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