The red-carpet treatment that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) will receive in Beijing will be nothing more than window dressing by the Chinese Communists as a "united front" against Taiwan, democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) said on Saturday.
Wang, a leader of the pro-democracy student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989, said that another reason that China will be falling over itself to embrace the KMT delegation is to curry favor with Washington, which has long advocated that cross-strait issues be resolved peacefully or via dialogue.
In a speech delivered to a group of overseas Chinese in Los Angeles, Wang suggested that Lien, who is scheduled to embark on his self-styled "journey of peace" to China tomorrow, should make it clear to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) that change must come to the China's political regime, including democratization and freedom of speech. Lien must also speak on behalf of Taiwan to protect Taiwan's long-term interests, he said.
Wang, a Harvard University doctoral candidate who is currently on a research project on the West Coast, said that even if the KMT chairman signs an agreement with his Beijing hosts, it would be "just rubbish," given the true colors of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Noting that every written accord that the KMT and the CCP reached in the past ended up in the trash can of history, Wang, a history major at Peking University before the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, said that the CCP is untrustworthy and not interested in matters that only benefit others.
Wang, the founder of the Chinese Constitutional Reform Association in the US, has visited Taiwan many times since his visit trip in March 1999. He was in Taipei in January 2003 to launch his two new books written in Chinese -- one a collection of poems and the other a work of prose -- both published by Taipei's Locus Publishing Co.
He was in Taipei again in July 2003 for six weeks at the invitation of the Taipei City Government as an artist-in-residence.
Wang was jailed in July 1989 for his part in the pro-democracy demonstration and was released in February 1993. He was arrested again in October 1996 and sentenced to a further 11-year prison term.
In April 1998, he was released on parole on medical grounds and permitted to travel to the US for treatment -- a move that effectively sent him into exile.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
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