Prominent Tiananmen student leader Wang Dan (王丹) brushed off on Thursday an accusation by Beijing that he is a "Taiwan spy" as an old tactic which he "had long become used to" and which was not worthy of a response.
Wang said that from the first day he took part in pro-democracy activities in China, the Beijing regime had used insults and defamatory language in an attempt to discredit him.
So the latest accusation of spying for Taiwan came as no surprise.
Wang said he was not interested in wasting time answering the accusation. Instead, he quoted former US president Abraham Lincoln: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."
Wang, who is now working on a doctoral degree at Harvard University, said that Beijing's attacks on him had not changed his affection for Taiwan, and that he would never pass up the opportunity to co-operate with people who support the ideals which he and young democracy activists from all over China share.
Wang said, however, that he and Wu'er Kaixi (
Wang and Wu'er were attending a memorial and a press conference held in Washington, DC, on Thursday marking the 15th anniversary of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Wang and Wu'er said they would be willing to return to China as long as no conditions were placed on them.
Wu'er said his parents were getting old but the Beijing authorities had refused them permission to leave the country to visit him. Nor had the authorities allowed him to return to Beijing to see them.
Saying that returning to one's home country is a citizen's basic right, Wu'er called on the international community to exert greater pressure on the Beijing authorities so that dissidents living overseas could return home.
Wang, founder of the Chinese Constitutional Reform Association in the US, said China should not focus on economic development at the expense of human rights.
"We want to remind China that if they want to be a powerful country, they will have to follow international rules. And the most basic rule is to respect human rights," Wang said at the press conference.
Wang, 35, has been to Taiwan many times since he first visited the country on March 18, 1999. He visited Taiwan twice last year.
He was in Taipei in January last year to launch two new books, one a collection of poems and the other a work of prose. Both are published by Locus Publishing in Taipei.
Wang said at the time that he preferred to call himself a poet, adding that "literature is what enables me to survive."
He was in Taipei again last July for six weeks at the invitation of the Taipei City Government as an artist-in-residence.
Wang was jailed in July 1989 for his role in the Tiananmen pro-democracy demonstrations and was released in February 1993. He was arrested again in October 1996 and sentenced to an 11-year prison term.
In April 1998, he was released on parole on medical grounds and allowed to travel to the US for treatment -- a move that effectively sent him into exile.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
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