When it comes to cross-strait affairs and policies, similarities are hard to find between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), except for one thing: human rights.
Administrations under the two parties both emphasized human rights as one of their core values and said Taiwan’s advocacy for human rights and democracy could serve as an example and model for the Chinese Communist Party regime.
Therefore, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should immediately call for the release of the “China 18,” as well as tens of thousands of political dissidents, Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans and Uighurs imprisoned in China.
The “China 18” campaign was launched in June by several US-based human rights groups urging Beijing to release 16 — and later 18 — prisoners of conscience.
Public hearings have been held at the Legislative Yuan, as well as the US Congress, with families of those prisoners, many of them sentenced to life terms, appealing for public attention and assistance. A US congressional subcommittee urged Ma to help free the dissidents, in particular Wang Bingzhang (王炳章), who was accused of spying for Taiwan.
Wang, 66, was sentenced following a secret trial in 2003 by the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court in Guangdong Province for various offenses, including allegedly passing military secrets to Taiwan.
If Wang, a physician, did spy for Taiwan, the government would be responsible for rescuing him from his Chinese prison via all available channels, including direct negotiations. If Wang never spied for Taiwan, Ma is obligated to offer a clear explanation and call for Beijing to immediately release him.
Ma has always cited the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as one of his biggest achievements. He has also boasted about the state of cross-strait relations under his administration, saying that they have been the best in six decades because of his ability to lower bilateral tensions.
Unfortunately, the human rights situation in Taiwan has been going backward since Ma took office, as shown by the way his administration has treated protesters. Ma has also basically stayed silent about China’s infringement of human rights.
Ma has turned a blind eye to China’s crackdown on social unrest, as well as the rights movements in Tibet and Xinjiang. He even turned his back on his own citizens, ignoring thousands of cases involving kidnappings, murders and investment disputes of China-based Taiwanese businesspeople.
What is worse is that Ma has even praised Beijing, saying it has improved its human rights record.
If Ma, who has always boasted of abiding by the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, truly believes that the “mainland” area and Taiwan are both ROC territory, he has betrayed his citizens on both sides of the Taiwan Strait with his inaction on human rights.
The truth is that Ma has been a moral dwarf when it comes to China’s human rights violations and has, at best, offered lip service to human rights in general.
After a previous resolution called for the release of 4,033 political prisoners in China earlier this year, the legislature once again endorsed the appeal of the families of Chinese political prisoners this past week.
However, the key individual for a Taiwanese response is still Ma. The global appeal campaign will be another test of his commitment to uphold human rights as, in his own words, one of the most important core values for himself and for all Taiwanese.
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
A recent scandal involving a high-school student from a private school in Taichung has reignited long-standing frustrations with Taiwan’s increasingly complex and high-pressure university admissions system. The student, who had successfully gained admission to several prestigious medical schools, shared their learning portfolio on social media — only for Internet sleuths to quickly uncover a falsified claim of receiving a “Best Debater” award. The fallout was swift and unforgiving. National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and Taipei Medical University revoked the student’s admission on Wednesday. One day later, Chung Shan Medical University also announced it would cancel the student’s admission. China Medical
Construction of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) started in 1978. It began commercial operations in 1984. Since then, it has experienced several accidents, radiation pollution and fires. It was finally decommissioned on May 17 after the operating license of its No. 2 reactor expired. However, a proposed referendum to be held on Aug. 23 on restarting the reactor is potentially bringing back those risks. Four reasons are listed for holding the referendum: First, the difficulty of meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets and the inefficiency of new energy sources such as photovoltaic and wind power. Second,
RSS