Today, on International Human Rights Day, groups will hold vigils and celebrations around the globe to mark 60 years since the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
It is a day to pause and appreciate the freedoms we have, note the progress we have made since the Martial Law-era and remember those who live or lived under oppression.
In Hong Kong on Sunday, members of Independent PEN took to the streets early, calling for the principles of the UDHR to be respected and for China to release around 50 writers known to be imprisoned because of the words they dared to air.
That is a call protesters could hardly have made in communist China without risking detention themselves. Six decades after the UDHR’s inception, the principles enshrined in it — as well as in the UN human rights conventions that Beijing has since signed — carry little or no weight with Chinese authorities.
Last week, reports emerged that China had launched another of its infamous “strike hard” campaigns, this time to renew its stranglehold on a media environment that it thinks is getting out of hand. While the campaign will apparently target the domestic media to ensure that reports do not fuel the country’s swelling social unrest, the foreign press can hardly hope for better treatment.
News of the campaign followed on the heels of two reports at the end of last month that Chinese authorities violated the lofty freedoms they promised foreign journalists during the Summer Olympics — a set of relaxed guidelines that Beijing reaffirmed after the Games ended.
On Nov. 28, a British correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor was detained while covering a story about one of China’s countless underground churches — considered a scourge by Beijing despite its repeated assertions that it respects freedom of religion. Peter Ford was taken to an airport in Henan Province and sent back to Beijing immediately after being questioned for three hours, Reporters without Borders said.
Even more disturbing were reports that a Belgian TV crew were assaulted a day earlier for covering treatment of AIDS patients — also in Henan Province. The crew said they were pulled from their car, their videotapes and reporters’ notes taken and that they were beaten up.
The attack would hardly be the first on a journalist in China, where at least 10 foreign reporters were roughed up during the Olympics. It is not known how many domestic media workers might regularly meet such harassment. But the news was particularly symbolic of Beijing’s well-documented hypocrisy on matters of human rights, as it came just three days before World AIDS Day. To mark that day, Dec. 1, China held events designed to remake its notorious image as a regime that discriminates against AIDS patients and brutally represses open dialogue on the spread of the disease within its borders.
Every human being is entitled to the rights set forth in the UDHR. Unfortunately, the world remains a place where those rights must be fought for. As Taiwan again finds itself in a disquieting position in which the government must be reminded of its duties to respect rights that the nation had only recently begun to take for granted, we would do well to reflect on the harsh reality in neighboring countries and refocus our eyes on the goal.
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
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