Given the complex and close ties between Taiwan and China, the Taiwanese public and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) have a heavy mandate to defend democratic movements in China and urge the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to immediately release prominent dissident writer Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), a group of human rights advocates said in Taipei yesterday.
Liu was the lead drafter of “Charter 08,” a document initiated by more than 300 Chinese academics, social activists, lawyers, writers and others calling for substantial legal reforms within the Chinese government as friction increases between ordinary citizens and the authorities.
Even prior to the release of the document on Dec. 10, some signatories of the manifesto were harassed by the Chinese police with unwarranted searches, detentions, close surveillance and arrests. Liu has been held incommunicado since his arrest two weeks ago.
The Wall Street Journal reported that more than 5,000 people have added their names to the manifesto since the document was released.
“The demands of the manifesto are not extreme. They are basic human rights that should be enjoyed by all people in the world. The Charter 08 movement is both reasonable and peaceful,” said Huang Mo (黃默), a Soochow University professor, at Liberty Square yesterday.
The advocates demanded that Beijing respond to the manifesto and urged Ma to stand up to Beijing.
“During the Tibetan uprising prior to the Olympics, Ma stood in this place and called for a boycott of the games if the CCP continued to suppress the Tibetans. Now he has become the president, he does not dare say anything [against Beijing] and in fact, has refused to let the Dalai Lama visit Taiwan,” said Yang Chang-cheng (楊長鎮), executive director of the Deng Liberty Foundation.
Cai Lujun (蔡陸軍), a Chinese dissident who was smuggled into Taiwan three years ago, warned Ma that “kneeling subservience will not win you dignity or equality” when dealing with the Chinese totalitarian regime.
The US government issued a statement on Thursday last week calling on Beijing “to release Liu and cease harassment of all Chinese citizens who peacefully express their desire for internationally recognized fundamental freedoms.”
A similar refrain was made by the EU on Wednesday when it called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the reason for Liu’s arrest and the conditions of his detention.
“It also calls for Mr Liu’s fundamental rights and those of the other people arrested in the last few days to be respected and for the principle of freedom of expression to be observed in China in all circumstances,” the statement said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS