The Human Rights Foundation is seeking to hold one of its freedom forums in Taipei next year to highlight Taiwan’s suppression in the international community and its democratic achievements, the New York-based group said.
The forum usually brings the experience of the foundation’s flagship annual conference — the Oslo Freedom Forum — to different regions of the world to discuss human rights, political freedom and democracy issues.
As the foundation is seeking to bring the forum to East Asia, Taipei is the host city of choice, chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein said in an interview in Taipei on Wednesday.
Photo: CNA
The aim is to inform activists around the world about Taiwan’s transition to democracy, which is an example of democracy in a Chinese society, said Gladstein, who is in Taipei to plan for the forum.
He said Taiwan serves as a good example to the government of China, demonstrating that democracy is possible for Chinese nations.
Gladstein said that China has been crushing Taiwan internationally and can outdo the nation in many areas, from economy and investment, to food and culture.
“But the one area where Taiwan will always beat China, at least at the moment, is human rights and democracy,” Gladstein said.
Yang Jianli (楊建利), a US-based Chinese democracy advocate and former political prisoner, backs the foundation’s plan for a forum in Taipei.
“Taiwan is a democratic country, but it has little international visibility, as Taiwan is not a member of the UN or many other international organizations in which China has membership,” said Yang, who is also visiting Taipei.
China often squeezes Taiwan’s international space and it is unfair that there is no representation of Taiwan’s 23 million people in the UN system, he said.
The international forum would provide an opportunity for Taiwan to gain greater international visibility, Yang said.
The forum, which has been held in Europe, North America and Latin America, will next year focus on political freedom, democracy issues and a growing problem of dictatorship around the world, Gladstein said.
About 2.8 billion people in the world live in one-party states, including China, where independent journalism and independent activism are illegal, he said.
In China, people are prosecuted if they openly disagree with the government, Gladstein said.
“The status quo in China is not acceptable,” he said.
One of the goals of the forum will be to expose the problems in China in hopes of promoting greater awareness and encouraging people to help, Gladstein said.
Assistance to activists in China does not have to be in the form of financial resources, he said.
For example, software that allows activists there to contact each other safely would be of great help, he said.
The Human Rights Foundation is a non-profit organization that aims to promote and protect human rights globally. Its programs mainly support activists and civil society leaders working in tough environments like Cuba, China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Since 2009, the foundation has been holding the annual Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway, bringing together dissidents and leaders from the business, technology, media and political sectors to discuss ways of promoting human rights and democracy.
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
INTENSIFYING THREATS: Beijing’s tactics include massive attacks on the government service network, aircraft and naval vessel incursions and damaging undersea cables China is prepared to interfere in November’s nine-in-one local elections by launching massive attacks on the Taiwanese government’s service network (GSN), a report published by the National Security Bureau showed. The report was submitted to the Legislative Yuan ahead of the bureau’s scheduled briefing at the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The national security team has identified about 13,000 suspicious Internet accounts and 860,000 disputed messages, the bureau said of China’s cognitive warfare against Taiwan. The disputed messages focus on major foreign affairs, national defense and economic issues, which were produced using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed through Chinese
COUNTERING HOSTILITY: The draft bill would require the US to increase diplomatic pressure on China and would impose sanctions on those who sabotage undersea cable networks US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster the resilience of Taiwan’s submarine cables to counter China’s hostile activities. The proposal, titled the critical undersea infrastructure resilience initiative act, was cosponsored by Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Greg Stanton, and Democratic Representative Dave Min. US Senators John Curtis and Jacky Rosen also introduced a companion bill in the US Senate, which has passed markup at the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The House’s version of the bill would prioritize the deployment of sensors to detect disruptions or potential sabotage in real-time and enhance early warning capabilities through global intelligence sharing frameworks,
RSS