Fourteen members of the US Congress have written to US President George W. Bush urging him not to forget Taiwan during his final days in office.
They want Bush to warn President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that he must respect Taiwan’s basic freedoms and civil rights as he tries to improve relations with China.
“We want to express our concern about recent developments in Taiwan,” the letter written by Republican Representative Scott Garrett said. “The latest events appear to signal a disturbing erosion of civil liberties and human rights in Taiwan.”
The letter charges that during Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) visit last month, police seized Republic of China flags from anyone waving them along routes traveled by Chen; people were forbidden to display Tibetan flags; a shop was closed because it played Taiwanese folk music and police mistreated those who opposed the visit.
The letter says that several Democratic Progressive Party members had been interrogated, arrested and detained by police for politically motivated reasons.
“With this in mind, we hope that you will keep a close eye on these developments and urge the Ma Yin-jeou [sic] government to respect the basic freedoms and civil rights that Taiwan’s people have fought so diligently to achieve,” the letter said.
The letter was also signed by Republicans John Culberson, Dana Rohrabacher, Thaddeus McCotter, Kenny Marchant, Trent Franks, John Duncan, Michele Bachmann, Sue Myriuck, John Sullivan and Peter Roskam, and Democrats Robert Andrews, Dennis Moore and Rush Holt.
It is unlikely at this late stage of his administration that Bush will take any direct action. However, the letter will certainly be noted by president-elect Barack Obama’s administration and those officials he is appointing to foreign policy positions concerned with Taiwan.
There is concern that the Obama administration will be so anxious to promote good relations with China that it might overlook civil and human rights violations in Taiwan.
“Letters of this kind are very important because they act as a reminder that it is wrong to sacrifice civil rights for political policies — the end does not justify the means,” an Amnesty International official said.
Bob Yang (楊英育), president of the US-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs, said: “Sending this letter demonstrates the US Congress’ serious commitment to Taiwan’s democracy and freedom. We urge the Ma administration to heed international concern and to pledge to uphold the highest standard of universal human rights and civil liberty in Taiwan.”
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan