Lawyers should speak out
On July 17, 2015, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) printed a short article by me entitled, “Ruling the country by arresting lawyers in accordance with the law.”
I criticized the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because when lawyers across that country refused to avoid politically sensitive issues by speaking up for dissidents, the CCP defined such activity as “rights-defense-style troublemaking” and used that to arrest more than 300 such lawyers in a wave of arrests on July 9 that year. That day is now sometimes referred to as the “Great 709 Arrest.”
I am calling on all lawyers in Taiwan, and especially local lawyers’ associations across the country and the Taiwan Bar Association, to come forward as one in support of persecuted human rights lawyers in China and to demand that the Chinese government release them unconditionally.
Doing so is also every lawyer’s responsibility and duty.
On Monday last week, I saw that Wang Quanquan (王泉泉) — the six-year-old son of Wang Quanzhang (王全璋), who observers say is the last of the lawyers arrested on July 9 to have been convicted, has once again been stopped from attending school.
It happened after police on several occasions during the first four days of the school year visited the elementary school that had accepted Quanquan to put pressure on the school not to let him attend classes.
This was the second time Quanquan was stopped from attending school after the CCP in 2016 issued orders prohibiting all kindergartens and early learning centers from accepting him.
Wang Quanzhang’s wife, Li Wenzu (李文足), suspects that the authorities are using their son to put pressure on his father because he is concerned about his son’s schooling, in effect using Quanquan as a hostage.
This is as shocking as it is infuriating.
Wang Quanzhang has not broken the law, but he was still convicted in a secret court procedure after having been detained for several years.
Now the Chinese authorities are increasing the pressure on him by resorting to guilt by association and punishing his six-year-old son.
This is evil. It is not very surprising that the US is calling China a rogue nation.
You Ying-fu
Taipei
Subsidize public transport
Even the most energy-efficient scooter cannot cut as much pollution or carbon emissions or save as much energy as walking, cycling or using public transport.
To speed up the replacement of two-stroke scooters with eco-friendly electric ones, central and local governments have been subsidizing the price of electric scooters and bicycles.
However, it would be better to invest more money in transport infrastructure such as metro lines, clean-bus systems and bicycle routes, and to make it safer for people to ride bicycles or walk.
Subsidizing scooter purchases encourages people to ride scooters. This causes the associated problems of traffic chaos, environmental pollution and high energy consumption to remain unsolved.
Taiwan is a nation of scooters. Ministry of Transportation and Communications data shows that Taiwan has Asia’s highest density of scooter ownership, with 58.7 scooters per every 100 people.
Research published by Academia Sinica shows that the more public transport a township has, the lower its scooter-linked death rate will be.
When more public transport stops are provided, the number of vehicle-accident deaths falls, with scooter and motorcycle riders accounting for the difference. Cutting scooter numbers can save lives.
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit System is finding it hard to make a profit, so it may review its ticket prices and scrap the 20 percent discount for passengers who use electronic tickets.
Instead of subsidizing scooter purchases, the government would do better to subsidize public transport systems and promote eco-friendly modes of transport.
Wei Szu-yuan
New Taipei City
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