Eighteen US-based Taiwanese-American organizations issued a joint statement yesterday accusing the government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of sacrificing Taiwan’s democracy and human rights to cater to China during last week’s visit by Association for Relations Across the Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
“In an attempt to kiss up to Beijing, the Ma administration prohibited public display of [Republic of China items] on the streets. It was a dark moment in Taiwan’s democracy,” Central News Agency (CNA) quoted the statement as saying.
Taiwanese Association of America chairman Ron Hsieh (謝榮峻) said that almost all Taiwanese-American organizations felt “extreme sadness, worry and anger” at Ma’s handling of the visit, which he said had caused much social disharmony in Taiwan.
The statement said that to welcome the Chinese Communist Party representative, the Ma administration not only stripped the people of their right to wave their country’s flag, play Taiwanese songs and wear whatever they choose to wear, it also mobilized more than 7,000 police officers to secure the safety of one person.
Barbed wire was erected, people waving Tibetan flags were apprehended and applications to stage a protest were denied — all actions, the statement said, that were undertaken by the Ma administration to “make Chen feel like a revered guest.”
“Taiwan has become a police state as can only exist in a totalitarian regime,” the CNA report quoted the statement as saying, adding that Taiwan’s hard-won democracy and rule of law, realized through blood and tears, were all destroyed in just a few short days.
All Taiwanese, the statement added, must stand in solidarity. The US-based Taiwanese groups promised to urge the mainstream US media, political sector and academics to take notice of Taiwan’s recent regression and to publicly support its democracy in international settings.
The organizations that signed the statement also include the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, the North American Taiwan Professors’ Association, the World Taiwanese Congress and the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
’DISTORTION’: Beijing’s assertion that the US agreed with its position on Taiwan is a recurring tactic it uses to falsely reinforce its sovereignty claims, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said Chinese state media deliberately distorted Taiwan’s sovereign status, following reports that US President Donald Trump agreed to uphold the “one China” policy in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). During the more than one-hour-long call, Xi urged Trump to retreat from trade measures that roiled the global economy and cautioned him against threatening steps on Taiwan, a Chinese government summary of the call said. China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying that the US should handle the Taiwan issue cautiously and avoid the two countries being drawn into dangerous
RSS