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.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS