China must investigate a harrowing account of torture by a detained lawyer and release several political prisoners, the EU has demanded in a rare statement amid a deteriorating human rights situation under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Detained rights lawyer Xie Yang (謝陽) detailed his treatment in detention last week, where he was allegedly beaten, forced into stress positions, denied medical care and deprived of food, drink and sleep by police.
Interrogators threatened him repeatedly, allegedly saying: “We’ll torture you to death just like an ant.”
Separate reports have said two other civil rights attorneys, Li Heping (李和平) and Wang Quanzhang (王全璋), have also been tortured while in custody.
“If verified, this mistreatment would amount to torture,” the EU’s foreign affairs spokesperson said in a statement. “All necessary measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of these individuals need to be taken.”
“If the accounts of mistreatment or torture are confirmed, this should result in the punishment of the responsible persons,” the statement added, citing China’s own laws that prohibit torture.
All three were detained in July 2015, part of an unprecedented nationwide crackdown on human rights lawyers, legal assistants and activists. Nearly 250 people were targeted during the campaign, with some still held by police without trial more than 18 months later.
“We reiterate our call for the release of the lawyers and human rights defenders who remain in detention, including Jiang Tianyong (江天勇),” the EU statement said, referring to another lawyer who disappeared into police detention in November last year.
The EU applauded the release of two other rights defenders, Xie Yanyi (謝燕益) and Li Chunfu (李春富), but for relatives there is little cause for celebration.
Li — brother of Li Heping — was granted bail earlier this month and returned home.
However, relatives said that nearly 17 months of severe abuse have transformed the 44-year-old lawyer into a shadow of his former self.
“His mind is shattered,” his wife, Bi Liping (畢麗萍), was quoted as saying in one online account of the lawyer’s ordeal.
The EU statement comes just days after a group of leading lawyers and judges writing in the Guardian expressed “grave concern” over the detention of legal professionals.
“In order to vindicate its claim to be a responsible stakeholder in the international community and to be a respected global superpower, it is imperative that China honor its international commitments to international conventions and human rights,” the letter said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary