Wuer Kaixi (吾爾開希), a prominent student leader in China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, could be detained for questioning in Japan “for some time” after he was arrested upon entering the Chinese embassy in Tokyo on Friday, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said yesterday.
MOFA Deputy Spokesman James Chang (章計平) said Wuer Kaixi was being detained and questioned by the Japanese Azabu Police Station and that he might be held for as long as 48 hours before being sent to a prosecutor for further questioning tomorrow.
Chang said ministry officials stationed in Tokyo haven’t been able to meet Wuer Kaixi, but had talked to Japanese police to better understand why he was being investigated.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Wuer Kaixi was charged with illegal entry into the Chinese embassy and vandalism, said an official who asked to remain anonymous.
He was arrested by Japanese police after he stormed onto the grounds of the embassy.
In a prerecorded video, Wuer Kaixi, who is now a Taiwanese citizen, said he wanted to return to China so he could lobby Chinese leaders to openly discuss the 1989 military action against Tiananmen Square student protesters.
“Today, I take this action to go back to China to continue to press the Chinese government for dialogue — even if this dialogue has to take place in a courtroom,” he said.
Wuer Kaixi, who rose to fame during the Tiananmen protests by haranguing then-Chinese premier Li Peng (李鵬) during a televised meeting, was No. 2 on China’s list of 21 most-wanted student leaders.
After the crackdown in Tiananmen Square, Wuer Kaixi went into hiding and was able to escape to France and later to the US, where he studied at Harvard University and the Dominican College in California.
He later married a Taiwanese.
On June 3 last year, the eve of the 20th anniversary of the crackdown, Wuer Kaixi traveled to Macau to announce that he would turn himself in to Chinese authorities.
He was subsequently deported back to Taiwan.
Exiled student leaders remembered the dead by hosting an online discussion on his Twitter account.
“In the past 21 years, we have never and will never forget them. We are just the lucky survivors. They are the true heroes,” Wang Dan (王丹), who now lives in Los Angeles, said in a Tweet.
Additional reporting by AP
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
RSS