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
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS