The Presidential Office yesterday defended President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) track record on human rights since China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, and said the government would continue to urge the Chinese government to show more tolerance for dissent.
Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) made the remarks in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who accused Ma of softening criticism of the suppression of human rights in China since taking office.
Fan Chiang yesterday said that human rights remained a core value under the Ma administration.
“President Ma has shown his concerns about China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4 over the past years, and as usual, he will issue a formal statement on the incident this year,” he said
“Chairperson Tsai, however, did not speak up on the incident until after taking over as the DPP leader. It is unthinkable that she would criticize President Ma, who has shown constant concern about the incident,” he added.
Tomorrow will mark the 22nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989.
Saying that Taiwan must use its democratic assets to support Beijing’s democratization, Tsai on Wednesday accused Ma of keeping relatively silent on the incident over the past three years as his administration sought to improve cross-strait relations with China.
Fang Chiang yesterday said Ma has continued paying great attention to the development of human rights in China, giving a speech on the issue every anniversary and urging the Chinese government to release Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) last year when he was given the Nobel Peace Prize.
Human rights, Fang Chiang said, would remain a key issue that influences the development of cross-strait relations and Taiwan expects China to improve its democracy, freedom, judicial system and human rights as China has become the second-largest economy in the world since 1989.
The Ma administration will continue to seek closer ties with China, despite concerns about its human rights development, because continuous cross-strait exchanges will help people in China understand the importance of freedom and democracy, he added.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching