The Falun Gong Research Organi-zation in Taiwan yesterday condemned the Chinese government's human-rights violations of the meditation group's followers over the past two years.
Chang Ching-hsi (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Chang was accompanied at the press conference by DPP Legislator Shih Min-te (
"Falun Gong is just a spiritual movement and we are not interested in any political issues," Chang said. "I don't understand why the Chinese government marks it as a cult and violates the followers' human rights. I hope that the public and media in Taiwan will help us condemn such violations."
Shih, who was a victim of human-rights violations by the KMT government in the 1960s through the 1980s and was imprisoned for more than 15 years, emphasized that human rights are universal values and are more important than the cross-strait issue.
"Taiwanese society has reacted coldly to the Falun Gong issue, since most people are afraid to hurt relations with the Chinese government. But we should not tolerate any human-rights violation, no matter how strong the [perpetrating] country is," Shih said.
Echoing Shih, Yang promised to take the issue to the president's advisory group.
"We shouldn't give up safeguarding human rights for the sake of fake cross-strait peace. I'll try to urge the advisory group to do something about the Chinese government's human-rights violations," Yang said.
Falun Gong is a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism and meditation and breathing exercises. The group claims 100 million followers worldwide, but has been stigmatized by the Chinese government as a cult and has been banned in China since 1999.
Human-rights groups say more than 200 Falun Gong adherents have died in custody after being tortured by Chinese police.
Chang said the media in Taiwan rarely pay attention to this issue, resulting in a lack of understanding about the Chinese government's human-rights violations among people in Taiwan.
"The Chinese-language media have been very cold toward this issue. They rarely cover these human-rights violation cases. For their sources, they always use the Xinhua news agency's reports, which have a strong bias against Falun Gong and are not reliable," Chang said.
China has tried hard to improve its human-rights image in support of Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
In May, the Chinese government allowed a group of foreign journalists to visit labor camps where many Falun Gong followers were detained. The reporters were shown how well the Falun Gong followers were being treated at the camp.
On Wednesday, Chinese officials confirmed reports of a mass suicide by Falun Gong followers at another labor camp. Falun Gong adherents, however, claim that the inmates were tortured to death.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique