On Thursday, Taiwan, along with many other nations and the UN, marked Human Rights Day, and also commemorated the 50th anniversary of two treaties: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) marked the day by presenting Nepalese activist Sunita Danuwar with this year’s Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy for her work against human trafficking.
The UN Human Rights Office used the day to launch a year-long campaign, titled “Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always,” to highlight the inalienable and inherent rights of global citizens.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who is not known for his eloquence, on Thursday was right on the money when he said that freedom and democracy have become a natural part of everyday life in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Day in China was notable for two events. The first was word that one of the nation’s most celebrated human rights lawyers is to go on trial on Monday for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The second was a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press briefing at which spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) rejected a UN report critical of Beijing’s human rights record, use of torture in prisons, “black jails” and crackdown on lawyers and activists.
According to his attorney, Pu Zhiqiang (浦志強), who has been detained for 18 months as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) crackdown on dissent, has been indicted for “inciting ethnic hatred” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” because of seven microblog posts, including one that questioned official media accounts of a knife attack blamed on Xinjiang Uighurs and one that accused CCP officials of lying.
Hua said that the UN’s allegations of rights abuses were indicative of “political prejudice” and a “lopsided” point of view, before trotting out the tired old excuse that China is pursuing a development path that suits its national and human rights conditions.
Beijing’s actions and comments serve as another reminder in this Taiwanese election season, if one was needed, that the gulf between China and this nation is far wider than the waters of the Taiwan Strait, regardless of the tired claims of officials on both sides of ethnic ties and aspirations.
The Ma administration, which ratified the ICCPR and the ICESCR in 2009, has, in true Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spirit, used the two treaties more as a symbol of Taiwan’s role on the international stage than as guideposts for domestic policy. Yet its various attempts to backpedal on free speech, press freedom and the right of assembly have been stymied by the growing vociferousness of young Taiwanese.
However, Xi’s government, which loudly demands acknowledgement of China as a global power without showing much willingness or ability to fulfill the responsibilities of one, has shown an increasing inability to countenance even the mildest of critiques or calls to respect human rights. Clamping down on the media and the Internet and imprisoning civil activists and lawyers are signs of weakness, not strength.
Xi, crafting a cult of personality that harkens back to the dark old days of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), is yet another in the long line of Chinese leaders going back hundreds of years who have only been able to look to the past for glory instead of seeking it in the future.
And that is one of the reasons a majority of Taiwanese see no future in Xi, although they are willing to accept well-regulated cross-strait economic interactions.
The human and civic rights of Taiwanese have been hard won, and must always be vigorously defended — through the ballot box and civil oversight of the government.
This editorial has been amended since first published to correct that Sunita Danuwar, who received an award from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, does not work for the foundation.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations