Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Shih-meng (
"China should give up such senseless cruelties and stop discrediting the group as an evil cult," Chen said.
Chen said China's accusations are slanderous because most Falun Gong members he knows are good people.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen made the remarks at a memorial ceremony in Taipei's Ta-an Forest Park for deceased and oppressed Falun Gong members.
Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners and followers gathered in Taipei last night to light candles and watch artistic performances to observe the third anniversary of the ban of the group in China.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) officially announced the ban of Falun Gong and all information about the group on July 20, 1999.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
The group's worldwide branches held memorial activities simultaneously yesterday.
DPP Taipei City Mayoral candidate Lee Ying-yuan (
"We can't keep silent while Beijing oppresses Falun Gong, because the concept of human rights and freedom should be applied to every corner of the world," Lee said.
Lee was banned from returning to Taiwan in the late 1980s while he was studying for his PhD in the US because he was on the governing KMT's black list. He returned secretly in 1991 but was arrested and jailed for nine months after being in hiding for months.
He said yesterday that Taiwan had moved from darkness to brightness in terms of human rights. "In the past, we were a country which imported the concept of human rights, and from now on, we should export this concept to other countries," he said.
In addition, Vice President Annette Lu (
Premier Yu Shyi-kun showed his support with a statement saying that religious freedom is a universal value, which should be a part of daily life.
Chang Ching-hsi (張清溪), leader of the group's Taiwan branch, said that since 1999, the latest record showed that 348 members in China have been tortured to death, thousands of members have been forced to go to psychiatric hospitals and take mind-altering drugs, and hundreds of thousands of members have been deprived of job opportunities and had their property confiscated by Chinese authorities.
"Every day, torture and persecution takes place all around China. We call for efforts to save those who simply seek to abide by the moral principles of truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance," Chang said.
"Falun Gong is a practice that benefits human health. It has absolutely no political purpose, contrary to China's allegations."
The group's practitioners also recited poems, danced, sang and staged plays to protest China's oppression as well as prayed for their fellow practitioners in China on the other.
China outlawed Falun Gong in 1999 after an estimated 10,000 followers demonstrated peacefully outside the Communist government's leadership compound in Beijing.
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
UPGRADED MISSILE: The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology is reportedly to conduct a live-fire test of the Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile on Thursday next week The US Army is planning to build new facilities to boost explosives production and strengthen its supply chain, a move aimed at addressing munitions shortages and supporting obligations to partners including Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel, Defense News reported. The army has issued a sources sought notice for a proposed Center of Excellence at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, the report said. The facility would serve as a hub within the US industrial base for the production of key military explosives, including research department explosives (RDX) and high melting explosives (HMX), while also supporting research and development of next-generation materials. The proposed
SOUTH KOREA DISPUTE: If Seoul continues to ignore its request, Taiwan would change South Korea’s designation on its arrival cards, the foreign ministry said If South Korea does not reply appropriately to a request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, the government would take corresponding measures to change how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. Taipei has asked Seoul to change the wording. Since March 1, South Koreans who hold government-issued Alien Resident Certificates (ARC) have been identified as from “South Korea” rather than the “Republic of Korea,” the
RSS