Taiwan’s leaders appear to have a lack of understanding of “the essence of Beijing’s authoritarian regime,” despite Taiwan serving as a role model for democratic development in China, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠) said in Taipei yesterday.
Chen, who has been living in the US after fleeing China in May last year, told an international press conference on the first full day of his 18-day visit to Taiwan, that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) refusal to meet him “reflected the fierce competition between a democracy and an authoritarian regime.”
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) also turned down the opportunity to meet the 41-year-old dissident during his visit, which has been dubbed as a “trip for human rights” by its main organizer, the Taiwan Association for China Human Rights.
Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters
Visiting Taiwan for the first time, the activist said the success of Taiwan’s democratic development has proven Beijing’s rhetoric that democracy is not suited for the Chinese world to be a lie that “couldn’t be more wrong.”
However, Chen expected Taiwan to stand firm on its democratic system and “engage more with China’s political leaders, but also with its rights activists because they represent the real voice of the people.”
Accompanied by members of his family and his mentor, New York University (NYU) law professor Jerome Cohen, Chen faced the press conference — which attracted more than 100 reporters, and included more than 40 international media outlets — with confidence.
He carefully handled more than 20 questions on various topics, such as his plans after finishing his fellowship at NYU, a suspected attempt to hack into his personal computer by Beijing and his observations on democracy in Taiwan, without undue elaboration.
Chen refrained from criticizing Taiwanese politicians or democratic developments in Taiwan and Hong Kong, which one reporter described as “eroding.”
“If Hong Kong fails to transplant the rule of law to China, Beijing will eventually bring the rule of man to Hong Kong. If Taiwan does not help democratize China, the authoritarian system of government will someday return to intimidate Taiwan,” Chen said.
With regard to his future, Chen said he does not rule out any possibilities, including where he would live, but said he is determined to fight the Chinese Communist Party regime, which imprisoned him between 2006 and 2008, and afterward placed him under house arrest.
Speaking with confidence, Chen said he would “definitely return to China” and that he believed he had done the right thing and “struck Beijing in its Achilles’ heel,” which is what caused it to retaliate so strongly against him.
Chen is scheduled to deliver a speech titled “Human rights as the foundation of cross-strait peace” at the Legislative Yuan and visit Jingmei Human Rights Memorial Park in the outskirts of Taipei today.
He is also scheduled to unveil his new book, titled China, the Book of Living and Dying, at a press conference in Taipei tomorrow.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS