Chinese dissidents reported being detained and harassed yesterday as authorities clamped down on the 20th anniversary of a reformist leader’s death that triggered the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
The anniversary is seen as the start of an ultra-sensitive period for Chinese Communist Party leaders as they will be forced to revisit the June 4 crackdown that killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
Qi Zhiyong (齊志勇), a well-known Chinese dissident who lost a leg when he was shot during the military crackdown, said yesterday he had been taken away by police.
PHOTO: AFP
“When I went out at seven o’clock to take my child to school, I was forced into a police car by state security police,” Qi said in a text message. “They have taken me to the outskirts [of Beijing].”
Qi said the detention was related to yesterday being the anniversary of the death of former communist leader Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦), who was purged in 1987 for his perceived weak response to student protests and died on April 15, 1989.
His death sparked calls for political reforms that led to the massive democracy protests in and around Tiananmen Square, which the Chinese military brutally quashed on June 4.
Other dissidents and a rights group also reported increased scrutiny yesterday.
Wang Songlian, research coordinator at activist group Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said a number of dissidents had told her of heightened tensions on the day of the anniversary.
“Today is a day when police have started putting people outside dissidents’ homes and following them,” she said, declining to immediately reveal their names before getting their permission.
“We have a number of people that have been subject to increased surveillance and some have been told not to go to meetings today where they could see other dissidents,” she said.
Jiang Qisheng (江棋生), a Beijing-based activist who was jailed for more than a year for participating in the 1989 protests, said police were watching him constantly in his native Jiangsu Province, where he had been staying for more than a week.
“They stand at the gate of my house guarding me without my permission and wherever I go they follow me,” he said by telephone.
“When I return to Beijing, I think it will be the same as it is getting nearer June 4,” he said.
Jiang, who was jailed again in 1999 after urging people to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, said he had started coming under police scrutiny during the nation’s annual parliamentary session in March.
Some netizens, meanwhile, posted comments online about Hu, widely admired because he tried to rehabilitate the victims of the tumultuous Cultural Revolution and admitted mistakes in the handling of Tibet.
“The older generation’s opinion of him is good, it’s just a shame that afterwards at school we have not ever really heard of him,” said one posting on a popular Web portal.
Also See: Hong Kong students vote on Tiananmen motion
The Taipei Times ran an interview with Qi Zhiyong in its April 14 edition. Please see: The Tiananmen ache
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS