A commemorative event was held in Taipei last night to mourn the passing of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) as politicians stressed the importance of democracy and human rights.
Liu, sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” after he helped write a petition entitled Charter 08, which called for sweeping political reforms, died on Thursday after battling liver cancer. He was 61.
The commemoration, held in Liberty Square, was initiated by the New School for Democracy, an institution chaired by exiled Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹).
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
The group called for Beijing to release all those imprisoned for speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party.
Earlier, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said it was sad to hear of Liu’s passing, offering her condolences for Liu’s 28 years of house arrest and imprisonment, adding that “only those who have been in jail can understand.”
Chen herself served six years and two months in prison for her participation in the Formosa Incident, a pro-democracy demonstration organized by Formosa Magazine on Dec. 10, 1979.
“No one should be imprisoned for expressing a different view using any method,” she said. “Liu’s struggles and his adherence to his ideals reminds us that freedom and democracy do not fall out of the sky. Freedom and democracy cannot be retained without effort spent to safeguard it.”
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that China is constantly criticized by other nations for being “barbaric” and that it should endeavor to improve its human rights record.
“Should China be willing, Taiwan is an excellent example of a success story and we hope that Chinese, one day, will enjoy freedom and democracy,” Ko said. “This is what [China] needs to work on.”
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook that while the world mourned the passing of Liu, China should seek to improve its record on freedom and human rights, both to live up to its position as a “great power” and the “Chinese dream.”
Meanwhile, in response to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) remarks on Thursday that Taiwan hoped China could show self-confidence and promote political reform following the death of the Nobel laureate, Beijing yesterday accused Tsai of aggravating tension across the Taiwan Strait.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying that such “reckless” comments were “very dangerous” for cross-strait relations and were an example of Tsai’s “repeated arbitrary attacks.”
He said Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party had “lifted the deceptive veil” of maintaining the “status quo” in cross-strait relations and that the repeated attacks were an attempt to regress ties to “tension and turbulence.”
“Such behavior is very dangerous,” he said, according to the Xinhua report, which was published only in English.
Additional reporting by Peng Wan-hsin and agencies
FOUR DESIGNATED AREAS: Notices were issued for live-fire exercises in waters south and northwest of Penghu, northeast of Keelung and west of Kaohsiung, they said The military is planning three major annual exercises across the army, navy and air force this month, with the navy’s “Hai Chiang” (海強, “Sea Strong”) drills running from today through Friday, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The Hai Chiang exercise, which is to take place in waters surrounding Taiwan, would feature P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and S-70C anti-submarine helicopters, the ministry said, adding that the drills aim to bolster the nation’s offshore defensive capabilities. China has intensified military and psychological pressure against Taiwan, repeatedly sending warplanes and vessels into areas near the nation’s air defense identification zone and across
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
SENATE RECOMMENDATION: The National Defense Authorization Act encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s navy to participate in the exercises in Hawaii The US Senate on Thursday last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which strongly encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s naval forces to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, as well as allocating military aid of US$1 billion for Taiwan. The bill, which authorizes appropriations for the military activities of the US Department of Defense, military construction and other purposes, passed with 77 votes in support and 20 against. While the NDAA authorizes about US$925 billion of defense spending, the Central News Agency yesterday reported that an aide of US
RSS