As part of a globally coordinated effort to have imprisoned Chinese dissident and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) released, exiled Chinese democracy activists Wang Dan (王丹) and Wuer Kaixi, accompanied by Taiwan Association for China Human Rights chairman Yang Hsien-hung (楊憲宏), delivered a petition signed by more than 600 Taiwanese to the Presidential Office, asking the office to forward it to the Chinese government.
Initiated by Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu in December last year, more than 400,000 people worldwide have signed the petition urging the Chinese government to release Liu immediately, and yesterday was the date set for delivery of the petitions to Chinese diplomatic posts around the world, Wuer Kaixi told a press conference in front of a monument to commemorate victims of the White Terror era on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office yesterday morning.
“Today, people who are concerned about Liu and about the democratic movement in China are turning in petitions to Chinese consulates and embassies in their own countries, calling on China to release Liu,” Wuer Kaixi said. “Since there’s no Chinese representation here in Taiwan, we are turning in our petition to the Presidential Office, hoping that it will forward it to Beijing.”
Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters
Wuer Kaixi said that while President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had once urged Beijing to set Liu free, it was unfortunate that no Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers had accepted his invitation to attend the event.
“However, this is an opportunity for Ma to show he really means what he said,” Wuer Kaixi said. “The difference between Taiwan and China is that we’re giving Liu our support, while China threw him in jail.”
Wang, who is a personal friend of Liu, said that Liu has always been concerned about Taiwan’s development and considers himself a friend of Taiwan, although he has never set foot in the nation.
“As a nation that stands behind the universal values of human rights, I hope that Taiwanese will not forget their obligations to help promote human rights protection around the world, including in China,” Wang said. “It’s especially important for Taiwan, because it would not be good for cross-strait exchanges if China remains a superpower in human rights violations.”
Yang said that human rights advocates were looking to push for legislation on political asylum and to amend the Act Governing Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to include clauses on human rights protection.
Separately yesterday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) urged Ma to sign the petition demanding Beijing release Liu.
“Ma, as well as anyone who upholds the values of freedom, peace and democracy, should join more than 400,000 people from about 130 countries and support the petition drive,” DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
Additional reporting by Chris Wang
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS