Chinese dissident Yang Jianli (楊建利) yesterday urged Taiwan not to forget about democracy, freedom or its sovereignty when pursuing closer relations with China.
“I would like to call on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to use the language of democracy and freedom when developing closer ties with China. Taiwanese should pay more attention to their sovereignty so that it won’t be damaged when interacting with China,” Yang told a press conference coorganized by domestic civic groups to voice their support for democracy and human rights activists in China.
“Taiwanese should defend Taiwan’s sovereignty and make Taiwan’s democracy more mature so that it can become a role model for China to follow,” he said.
Yang also took the opportunity to express his gratitude toward individuals and civic groups in Taiwan who joined a globally coordinated campaign for his release when he was imprisoned in China from 2002 to 2007.
He discussed the movement for human rights in China.
“The movement is not only about human rights, it’s also about democracy and fundamental political reform in China,” Yang said, adding that the fact that more than 10,000 people inside China used their real names to sign a petition supporting Charter 08 showed that the movement is gaining momentum.
Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), an attorney and a member of the Taipei Bar Association’s (TBA) Human Rights Protection Committee, agreed with Yang that human rights issues should not be left out of cross-strait exchanges.
“During the past year, the TBA received many visitors — individual lawyers and bar associations — from China,” Kao said. “Each time they came, we mentioned human rights in China and the discussions weren’t an obstacle to our exchanges.”
“If a civic group can do so, why can’t the government?” Kao asked.
He said that it was because of pressure from human rights groups and governments around the world that Chinese dissident Feng Zhenghu (馮正虎) was finally allowed to go home after living in Tokyo’s Narita Airport for more than 90 days.
Exiled Chinese writer Bei Ling (貝嶺) said earlier efforts were paying off.
“Twenty years ago, liberals in China voiced support for [former Czech president] Vaclav Havel, and now he’s voicing support for Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波),” Bei said. “Seven years ago, my friends and I campaigned for Yang’s release, and today it’s his turn to campaign for other imprisoned dissidents’ release.”
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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