Chinese dissident Xu Bo (徐波) yesterday asked a visiting TSU lawmaker to help arrange a meeting with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) three weeks after beginning an attempt to win political asylum in Taiwan.
While Xu's case is being decided the dissident is stranded at CKS International Airport, sleeping in makeshift quarters at the office of the Aviation Police Bureau.
"I'd like to take this opportunity to say that I'd like to meet with President Chen," Xu told visiting TSU Legislator Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) at a meeting in the bureau's inquiry room yesterday morning.
PHOTO: TONY K. YAO, TAIPEI TIMES
In his meeting with the lawmaker, Xu said he wanted to tell the president face to face how important it was for Taiwan to support the democracy movement in China.
"I feel I have very concrete reasons to persuade him ... And then it'll be helpful to my case," Xu said.
Xu, born in 1961 in the Chinese province of Guizhou, said if the president would not heed his argument he would try and seek political asylum elsewhere.
Xu fled China four years ago after the publication of his book, Red Fascist, which criticized the Beijing authorities. Fearing deportation from South Korea back to China, Xu decided to seek asylum in Taiwan during a transit at CKS international airport on Jan. 27 en route to Bangkok.
Xu's problem is that Taiwan does not legally recognize the right of political asylum. His status is currently that of an illegal immigrant.
Earlier yesterday, the lawmaker gave Xu two books concerning the incumbent president and former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) together with a box of cookies to show his concerns for the asylum seeker.
Xu showed the visiting legislator his temporary home inside the Aviation Police Bureau office -- with his single bed scattered with books and magazines.
Chang Charng-peng (張長鵬), chief of the passport control branch of the Aviation Police Bureau, said his unit had suggested the government relocate Xu to the nearby CKS airport transit hotel to provide him with better accommodation.
Xu also yesterday showed files of Korean newspaper clips reporting his thwarted bid for political asylum at the US and Canadian embassies in Seoul.
Some reports also touched upon the South Korean government's refusal to grant him asylum despite his status as an international refugee recognized by the UN High Commission for Refugee Affairs.
Xu said that he had decided to seek asylum in Taiwan because he had nowhere else to go.
Officials have said they have reservations about Xu's status as a democracy campaigner in China and fear setting a precedent in accepting a self-proclaimed Chinese dissident as the move might have detrimental effects on cross-strait ties.
The lawmaker urged the government to speed up its handling of the issue.
"If the government in private opposes having these Chinese democracy fighters staying in Taiwan to develop their networks, then it should say so clearly," said Chen.
Xu also told the legislator that establishing direct links with China could put Taiwan in a risky situation.
"Once three links are established, communist China will devour Taiwan economically and thus accelerate its move to suppress Taiwan politically," Xu said.
Xu also urged the government to seek a way to limit China-bound capital flow, warning such a trend, if it continued, may turn Taiwan into another Hong Kong, losing all its economic autonomy.
Xu has been identified as the head of the Seoul contact office of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition, a group led by dissident Wei Jingsheng (魏京生), since March last year.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite