Recently amended Chinese laws could jeopardize the judicial rights of Taiwanese in China, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said yesterday.
In addition to seeking closer economic ties with China, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration should pay closer attention to Beijing’s amended criminal code and detention regulations, Cheng told a press conference.
According to Cheng, a recent amendment to China’s criminal code has legalized secret arrests. The amendment, which was promulgated on Feb. 23 and is scheduled to take effect on April 1, demands that police inform the families of the people they arrest “in a timely manner,” rather than within 12 hours as previously stipulated, and does not hold police accountable for abusing detainees, she said.
“Judging from China’s poor human rights record, we have every reason to worry about the potential impact of these amendments on Taiwanese nationals who are currently detained or will be detained in the future,” she said.
While human rights are a priority in Taiwan, human rights conditions in China are at their worst level in a decade as Chinese authorities concoct ridiculous causes of death for prisoners who die in detention centers, she said.
A Taiwanese national was beaten to death in a Hong Kong prison in 2009, Cheng said.
The lawmaker urged the government to include human rights issues in future negotiations with Beijing, and urged China to allow Taiwanese officials to visit Taiwanese nationals detained in China.
Taiwan-China relations are conducted under the framework of the cross-strait judicial assistance agreement, Ministry of Justice prosecutor Fan Cheng-chung (范振中) said, adding that the ministry plans to set up an emergency hotline for Taiwanese nationals who travel or reside in China.
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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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