Taiwanese and Chinese democracy advocates yesterday said they would organize a major commemorative event in Taipei to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Headed by Taiwan Independence Party Chairman Peter Ku (古文發) and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) executives, the groups called on lawmakers to pass amendments to stop China’s espionage and infiltration efforts, and to counter Beijing’s “united front” tactics.
“We are worried about our cherished freedom and democracy due to recent actions by Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and other Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] members to sell out Taiwan to China,” Ku said.
“It is obvious that Beijing has been pouring money and providing incentives to Han and the KMT to buy them off. They are betraying our national sovereignty, and sacrificing Taiwanese” to China, Ku added.
Former TSU lawmaker Chou Ni-an (周倪安) said that a majority of Taiwanese do not want closer political and economic integration with China, as seen in the Sunflower movement protests five years ago to block the then-KMT government’s proposed trade agreement with China.
However, the nation is now under an even greater threat of Chinese political warfare and propaganda to undermine Taiwanese society, Chou said.
“We are very disappointed with the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP], because government agencies and officials have done nothing to fight against China’s fake news, financial backing for pro-China media outlets and business companies or Beijing’s various ‘united front’ tactics,” Chou said.
“The DPP government has also done very little to strengthen the national identity of Taiwanese, and has disregarded the urgent need to bolster the healthy development of Taiwanese culture, languages and sense of nationhood,” Chou added.
Joining them to form a broad international network were exiled Chinese writer Yuan Hongbing (袁紅冰), Anti-Communist China secretary-general Cheng Shuiyuan (成水炎) the Anti-Xi Democracy Revolutionary Alliance and delegates from the Global Coordination Center for Chinese Expose Revolution.
They were joined by representatives from the Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association, along with other dissidents and Chinese democracy advocates.
Yuan said that China’s rising political power and military expansion have become the biggest threat to humanity and have put world peace at risk.
“While Beijing wants to annex Taiwan, the Chinese hegemony and its economic clout are also threatening other countries in Asia. China is working to export its form of totalitarian government to Taiwan, with its heavy-handed censorship, human rights violations and atrocities against ordinary people,” Yuan said.
He urged the US and other nations to support Taiwan at this critical juncture, saying: “Due to the strategic geographic position in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan has become the most important pillar of strength in the fight against Chinese hegemony and its totalitarian way of government. Taiwan is on the front line in the battle to protect freedom and democracy for all humanity.”
Cheng said that the alliance between the Taiwanese groups and Chinese dissidents in exile can stimulate China’s democratization, adding that joint commemorations would be held to mark the Tiananmen Massacre and remember the victims of the 228 Massacre on its 72nd anniversary.
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