Despite the more liberal background of newly sworn-in Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary and Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), exiled Chinese democracy activist Wilson Chen (陳破空) said he does not expect substantial changes when Xi takes over as president because he is surrounded by members of the old guard.
“Some people do have some expectations of Xi when he takes office as the new president of China because of his liberal background, but I must say that I’m rather pessimistic about it,” Chen, a US-based researcher on Chinese politics, told a forum co-organized by the Taiwan Friends of Tibet and the Taiwan Association of University Professors yesterday on the potential policy direction of the new Chinese leadership toward Taiwan and Tibet.
“People have some expectations of him, because his father, Xi Zhongxun (習仲勛), one of the founding members of the CCP and the People’s Republic of China, was a liberal-minded person who had a friendly relationship with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and was opposed to the violent crackdown on the student demonstration on Tiananmen Square in 1989,” Chen said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“Most of the children of the CCP’s founding leaders are able to continue the political tradition of their parents — Xi Jinping is no exception, as he has earned a good name during his political career serving in local offices,” Chen said.
However, Chen said he was pessimistic on what Xi Jinping may do to instigate a political reform, as he is surrounded by conservatives.
He said that as Xi Jinping climbed to the CCP’s top position, the party’s conservatives launched a counterattack by placing members of the old guard around him to keep an eye on him and prevent him from imposing policies that may hurt their interests.
“Hence, I don’t see a potential for substantial changes in Chinese policies toward Taiwan and Tibet,” Chen said.
Lashing out at the CCP’s policy in Tibet, Chen said it should end its religious repression of Tibet, as religion is the core of Tibetan culture.
“Let’s not talk about what happened in 1959 or 1989 [when massive resistance by Tibetans was met by violent crackdowns]. The policy of requiring Buddhist monasteries to hang portraits of Chinese political leaders is a huge humiliation and disrespect for Tibetan culture,” Chen said. “Can you imagine the Taiwanese government requiring all temples in Taiwan to hang a portrait of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) or the US government requiring all churches in the country to hang a portrait of [US] President [Barack] Obama? That’s unthinkable.”
Chen expressed regret that the Taiwanese government had declined to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama, which he said compromised the values of freedom, democracy and human rights.
“When China says that everything could be discussed under the premise of the ‘one China’ principle, Taiwan should set human rights values as the premise for cross-strait talks,” Chen said. “Many western countries have successfully forced China into dialogues on human rights, so should Taiwan.”
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS