Minister of Justice Lo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) yesterday embarked on a historic five-day visit to China, where she is scheduled to speak at a college of law, among other activities.
Lo is the first Taiwanese minister of justice to visit China in an official capacity.
She was invited by China’s Supreme People’s Court chief prosecutor Cao Jiangmin (曹建明) when Cao visited Taiwan last year.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
After receiving instructions from President Ma Ing-jeou (馬英九) and consulting with the legislature’s major political parties, Lo told China that she would accept the invitation “under conditions of equality and respect,” the Ministry of Justice said yesterday in a news release.
Lo is to attend a meeting in Beijing with Cao and other high-ranking Chinese officials in charge of liaising with Taiwan over legal issues, the ministry said.
Lo is to give a talk on Taiwan’s judicial reforms at China’s National Prosecutors’ College in Beijing and attend an academic conference at East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, where she is to have talks with China-based Taiwanese businesspeople on their legal needs, the ministry said.
Lo is scheduled to return to Taiwan on Friday.
Lo would be able to contribute to China’s legal reforms by sharing Taiwan’s experience and facilitating cross-strait exchanges over legal issues, the ministry said.
Taiwan’s “advanced experience in the rule of law,” with regard to “striking a balance between strictness and clemency in criminal policy,” compensation packages for victims of crime, and the Administrative Enforcement Agency’s “justice and care” doctrine would be of benefit to China, it added.
However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) yesterday accused Lo of taking advantage of the trip to evade questions from lawmakers at a session of the Legislative Yuan, adding that the visit is poorly timed because controversy over the death penalty has been raised over the decapitation of a four-year-old girl in Taipei yesterday.
“The public expects Lo to make statements on this issue, but where is the minister of justice?” Wang said.
Wang added that Taiwan and China’s legal systems are incompatible, which calls into question the productivity of attempting to make “exchanges between democracy and totalitarianism.”
Even if Lo had achieved “Nobel Prize-worthy” breakthroughs, there would be no room for implementing any policy changes during the remainder of Ma’s term, Wang said, deriding the visit as “a recreational graduation trip.”
Wang vowed that DPP lawmakers would make Lo explain the purpose of her visit to China upon her return.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS