An overseas Taiwanese academic yesterday urged Chinese expatriates in the US to learn from Taiwan's experience and help speed up the democratization process in China.
Peter Chow (周鉅原), a professor at the City University of New York, said that during the 1960s and 1970s, Taiwanese students studying abroad and other expatriates worked with democracy activists on the island, accelerating the collapse of the authoritarian regime in Taiwan.
Chinese students studying overseas and expatriates "should not just jeer at the negative reports about Taiwan's democracy," he told a seminar sponsored by the New York branch of the Global Alliance for Democracy and Peace. Instead, they should learn from Taiwan's democratization experience and avoid repeating its mistakes when they help their motherland democratize, the economics professor said.
As the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre approaches, Chow said most Chinese people, influenced by the Chinese regime's media distortion and society's fixation on making money, have gradually forgotten the June 4 student movement which sought democracy for China.
Chow said he does not see any possibility in the near future of China's communist regime acknowledging its mistakes in militarily cracking down on the student protesters in 1989 in Beijing.
"If the inheritors of power in Beijing were to boldly acknowledge that something very bad had happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989, they would probably win even greater support," he said.
Li Hongkuan (李洪寬), a Chinese pro-democracy activist and Internet expert, said two "good conditions" currently exist for a similar democracy movement to erupt again in China. These are the fact that the Beijing regime has not changed at all since 1989, in terms of opening itself up to dissident voices, and that communications technologies have progressed tremendously, making it impossible for the regime to suppress information to the same extent that it did 16 years ago. However, Li also said there is no doubt that the Beijing authorities will adopt a strategy of "nip it in the bud" when it comes to suppressing any democracy movement that may arise.
"They will never tolerate a similar democracy movement; they have better riot gear than before; they will never relent in arresting activists," he said.
Chow elaborated on his view that the Beijing regime has not changed, saying that it has failed to solve the social problems that led to the 1989 student movement and that the problems have actually expanded to the areas of education, housing and income, leading to feelings of frustration among a greater portion of society.
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
RSS