Dozens of people rallied yesterday to spell out “China! Free Li” in Zhongyangyiwen Park (中央藝文公園) in Taipei and calling on Beijing to released Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲).
Lee went missing on March 19 after entering Zhuhai, China, from Macau. More than two months later the Chinese Ministry of State Security announced that he had been arrested on a charge of subversion of state power.
He was put on trial in Hunan Province on Monday last week and the court later released video footage of him confessing to attempting to subvert the Chinese government and accepting the charge against him.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Lee’s wife, Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), and human rights groups have been working since his disappearance to get Beijing to release him, and on Monday said that she did not recognize the validity of his trial.
Yesterday, civic groups that have been supporting Lee Ming-che gathered more than 250 supporters wearing red or white, who shouted “Freedom, not guilty! Democracy, not guilty! Release Lee Ming-che” as they formed the message “China! Free Li.”
Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明), a professor in the Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature at National Chengchi University, said that seeing the video of Lee’s confession reminded him of Chinese human rights lawyers detained by Beijing who have been forced to confess to various crimes.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“What’s the meaning of a rich and powerful state if its people cannot speak their minds? … China is an economic great power, but a dwarf in terms of human rights,” he said.
The Chinese government is unwilling to accept the universal values of freedom, democracy and civic rights that are common in Taiwan, he said.
Covenants Watch chief executive officer Huang Yi-bee (黃怡碧) said she and Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Chiu Ee-ling (邱伊翎) testified before the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in Switzerland on Wednesday about Lee Ming-che’s detention and trial.
She said the working group was very concerned about him and about his wife, worried that Lee Ming-che had confessed under severe mental pressure.
As he is being held on remand at an unknown location and Lee Ching-yu had previously been barred from freely entering China to see him, the Working Group agreed to continue investigating his case.
Chiu urged Taiwanese who criticized Lee Ching-yu to stop attacking, because their right to speak freely in Taiwan was fought for by human rights advocates like Lee Ming-che.
Judicial Reform Foundation executive director Kao Jung-chih (高榮志) said the Chinese government is trying to send the message that “if you step onto Chinese territory, we have control over you no matter where you come from,” and that its judicial system, which lacks the soul of the rule of law, is valid.
The groups said they will continue to air their protests to the world until Lee Ming-che is released.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
RSS