Calls for prominent Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo’s (劉曉波) release intensified in the legislature yesterday, after opposition lawmakers said they would introduce a motion asking the Chinese government to immediately free the detained Nobel prize winner.
The motion, which could be put to a legislative vote next month, will call for the government to formally request that Beijing release Liu and sign a UN convention on civil and political rights. It says that the detained activist should be able to travel to Norway to personally receive the prestigious award.
“Through this opportunity, Taiwan can showcase its democracy, freedom and human rights values,” DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. “Not only will [the motion] recognize Liu’s work in pursuing democratic rights, but it also shows the growing rift between China’s human rights ... and universally accepted values around the world.”
Liu was awarded the prize on Oct. 8 after the Nobel committee lauded the dissident for his “long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.”
A former literature professor, Liu was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment and two years’ deprivation of political rights by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” last December.
Chinese state media have branded him a “criminal” and media reports about the Peace Prize, the first awarded to a Chinese citizen, have been censored by Beijing. His wife, Liu Xia (劉霞), has also since been placed under house arrest despite being initially allowed to visit her husband, according to media reports.
The DPP proposal asks that “the government should launch a formal request asking China to immediately release Liu Xiaobo.”
It adds that Beijing should be asked to “hastily approve the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and undertake substantial measures to improve its human rights condition.”
While the motion was originally set to be introduced simply as a non-binding proposal, DPP lawmakers decided to send it to the procedural committee next Tuesday reportedly at the suggestion of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平). In the meantime, the non-binding proposal raised yesterday afternoon will be sent as a suggestion to the Executive Yuan.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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