Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠), who is studying law at New York University, said on Wednesday that China should learn from Taiwan and move toward democracy.
He said that if China could respond to public calls and build a society based on the Constitution and ruled by law with justice, democracy and freedom, the Chinese Communist Party could, like Taiwan’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), find its right orientation.
Chen made the remarks during a discussion with Jerome Cohen, a professor of law at New York University, on the subject of China’s future legal system and human rights.
One Chinese student asked about his views on the idea that democracy is not suitable for China, to which Chen replied that he does not approve of a complete transplantation of Western-style democracy to China.
He cited the British monarchy as an example, saying that while the UK is a democratic county, it has a royal family.
He said he would be absolutely opposed to a monarchy in Taiwan.
Chen said that although China cannot copy Western democracy completely, “it is all right to be 98 percent similar.”
Even if it cannot learn from Western democracies, and a Western-style democracy is unsuitable for China, the country “could learn from the East and learn from Taiwan’s democracy,” he said.
He called on the Chinese authorities to respond to people’s aspirations and warned them that time is running out.
This is because Chinese have gradually lost patience, as injustice has become more serious and calls for reforms have become louder, he said.
Beijing should push for democratic reform to put its people at ease, he added.
The 41-year-old, a self-taught lawyer, suffered years of persecution in China for his legal actions against forced abortion and for citizens’ rights.
He was at the center of a diplomatic tussle between China and the US when he fled house arrest in rural China and sought refuge in the US embassy in Beijing.
China subsequently let him leave for the US.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai