Human Rights Watch on Thursday released its annual report for last year, in which it described a “litany of human rights crises” around the world. The report is an opportunity for Taiwan to reflect on domestic and international rights issues that directly concern Taiwanese.
One of the focuses of the report was the abuses against Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region. China attempts to intimidate Uighurs living abroad, including in Taiwan, by harassing them by telephone or online, or threatening their family members in China. In the most egregious cases, China sends agents to harass or assault rights advocates in other countries. This was demonstrated in attacks in Taipei on Hong Kong democracy advocate Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), singer Denise Ho (何韻詩) and Lam Wing-kei (林榮基), who moved to Taiwan after authorities cracked down on his bookstore in Hong Kong.
Taiwan must continue to speak up for Uighurs trapped in Xinjiang, and advocate for the protection of those living abroad — including in Taiwan.
Also of concern is the deportation of Taiwanese to China when they are arrested overseas. Taiwan’s foreign affairs situation means that countries often capitulate to China on the issue of deporting Taiwanese, and those who face such a fate are likely to face grave human rights contraventions, including arbitrary imprisonment and torture, unfair trials and lack of access to diplomatic services.
Quite often Taiwanese are deported from democratic or rule-of-law countries, and are subjected to arbitrary detention and deportation due to Chinese pressure even though they might have committed no crime. These deportations should be addressed in the UN through allies and like-minded nations.
There are also domestic issues of concern to rights advocates. Migrant workers in domestic services, fishing, farming, manufacturing, food processing and construction continue to be subjected to unfair conditions. While amendments have sought to increase pay, supervise treatment of workers on distant-water fishing vessels and improve living conditions at factories, wages for migrant workers remain lower than the minimum wage. Live-in caregivers are also frequently denied appropriate leave, while there are reports of abuse and unfair restrictions.
National Human Rights Commission Chairwoman Chen Chu (陳菊) spoke about migrant workers’ rights at a forum on Dec. 7 last year. The government should follow up on the findings of that forum, for example, through a committee tasked with investigating and finding solutions for problems that migrant workers face.
Human rights groups have also called for the death penalty to be abolished. A nine-member international panel of human rights experts on May 13 last year issued a report on Taiwan’s implementation of UN human rights covenants that relate to the use of the death penalty. Austrian human rights lawyer Manfred Nowak said that Taiwan was “already among a very, very small number of countries in the world that still retain the death penalty, and the arguments that are time and again repeated by the government are far from convincing.”
Taiwan also continues to prosecute people accused of defamation in criminal court. The US Department of State said in its 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices last year that “under the law, those [in Taiwan] who commit slander or libel by ‘pointing out or disseminating a fact which will injure the reputation of another’ are subject to a sentence of up to two years or a fine.”
While Taiwan has made great progress on human rights, it should continue to investigate and improve issues that are of concern to Taiwanese at home and abroad.
On Sept. 3 in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rolled out a parade of new weapons in PLA service that threaten Taiwan — some of that Taiwan is addressing with added and new military investments and some of which it cannot, having to rely on the initiative of allies like the United States. The CCP’s goal of replacing US leadership on the global stage was advanced by the military parade, but also by China hosting in Tianjin an August 31-Sept. 1 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which since 2001 has specialized
In an article published by the Harvard Kennedy School, renowned historian of modern China Rana Mitter used a structured question-and-answer format to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China. Mitter highlights the differences between the repressive and authoritarian People’s Republic of China and the vibrant democracy that exists in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan and China “have had an interconnected relationship that has been both close and contentious at times.” However, his description of the history — before and after 1945 — contains significant flaws. First, he writes that “Taiwan was always broadly regarded by the imperial dynasties of
A large part of the discourse about Taiwan as a sovereign, independent nation has centered on conventions of international law and international agreements between outside powers — such as between the US, UK, Russia, the Republic of China (ROC) and Japan at the end of World War II, and between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since recognition of the PRC as the sole representative of China at the UN. Internationally, the narrative on the PRC and Taiwan has changed considerably since the days of the first term of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic
A report by the US-based Jamestown Foundation on Tuesday last week warned that China is operating illegal oil drilling inside Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Island (Dongsha, 東沙群島), marking a sharp escalation in Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. The report said that, starting in July, state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp installed 12 permanent or semi-permanent oil rig structures and dozens of associated ships deep inside Taiwan’s EEZ about 48km from the restricted waters of Pratas Island in the northeast of the South China Sea, islands that are home to a Taiwanese garrison. The rigs not only typify
RSS