Human rights and social activist Lynn Miles, a well-known fighter for Taiwanese democracy, died early yesterday morning at a hospice in New Taipei City.
The 72-year-old American, also known by his Chinese name Mei Hsin-yi (梅心怡), had been suffering from mesothelioma, a cancer linked to asbestos that attacks the membrane lining of the lungs and abdomen, for several months, and spent the past few weeks at the Tzu Chi General Hospital in Xindian District (新店). He died at 1:30am.
Miles first came to Taiwan in 1962 to study Chinese. He became friends with people such as National Taiwan University professor Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) and writer Li Ao (李敖), and in 1967, he and a German friend, Klaus-Peter Metzke, opened The Barbarian (野人咖啡室) cafe in Ximending, where people could meet and exchange ideas.
Photo: Liu Li-jen, Taipei Times
He helped Peng, who, along with two of his students, had been convicted for publishing a manifesto calling for the overthrow of the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) regime, escape house arrest and flee the nation for exile in Sweden in 1970.
The Chiang government deported Miles the following year, after he tried to help Li and Peng’s two students after they were arrested. The government blacklisted him from returning to Taiwan until 1996.
Miles moved to Osaka, Japan, where he continued his pro-democracy efforts for Taiwan, establishing the International Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Taiwan. The committee helped smuggle information about political prisoners out of Taiwan and Miles wrote reports on the political situation and the prisoners, and provided them to Amnesty International and other rights groups, reporters and churches.
Photo: Hsieh Wen-hua, Taipei Times
He spent several years in the US before returning to Taiwan once the blacklist was lifted.
He received permanent residency in Taiwan in 2006 for his “special contributions to the nation” and in recent years taught at Fu Jen Catholic University.
The New Jersey native continued to be a familiar face at protests over rights issues and spoke out on a variety of issues, including efforts to end the death penalty in Taiwan, and organizing several Peacefests. He burned his US passport in front of the American Institute in Taiwan in Taipei on March 23, 2003, to protest the US-led war in Iraq.
He coauthored with Linda Gail Arrigo a book about the human rights movement in Taiwan, A Borrowed Voice: Taiwan Human Rights through International Networks, 1960-1980, which was published in 2008.
In February, Miles was among 119 people indicted by Taipei prosecutors for taking part in Sunflower movement-linked rallies in Taipei in the spring of last year against the government’s handling of a cross-strait service trade agreement.
As Miles’ health worsened in recent weeks, several prominent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members visited him at the hospital, including DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), while a Peacefest to celebrate his life was held on May 30.
Tsai, who is currently on a trip to the US, mourned Miles’ death.
“Leaning about his passing away is a very saddening thing,” Tsai said in a statement on her official Facebook page. “As an American, he has always been a good friend of Taiwan, who long assisted Taiwan in democratization, and sincerely hopes that the Taiwanese people could live in freedom and democracy.”
She called Miles a witness of a time.
“From undemocratic to democratic, it is because of many friends like him who took actions to support us that Taiwan is able to become democratized in the end,” Tsai said. “May he rest in peace, and may he be free of all pains.”
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
EASING ANXIETY: The new guide includes a section encouraging people to discuss the threat of war with their children and teach them how to recognize disinformation The Ministry of National Defense’s All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency yesterday released its updated civil defense handbook, which defines the types of potential military aggression by an “enemy state” and self-protection tips in such scenarios. The agency has released three editions of the handbook since 2022, covering information from the preparation of go-bags to survival tips during natural disasters and war. Compared with the previous edition, released in 2023, the latest version has a clearer focus on wartime scenarios. It includes a section outlining six types of potential military threats Taiwan could face, including destruction of critical infrastructure and most undersea cables, resulting in
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
RSS