Chinese dissident Chen Siming (陳思明) arrived in Canada on Oct. 5 after being granted asylum. For Chen, it could be considered a satisfactory conclusion after being stuck at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport for about two weeks after he refused to fly to China. For Taiwan, the incident shows the need to accelerate asylum law legislation.
Chen regularly commemorated the Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 4, 1989. He has been repeatedly arrested around the anniversary and imprisoned.
Chen, who arrived at the airport on Sept. 22 after passing through Thailand and Laos, refused to board his flight to China and sought assistance to resettle in a third country. He stayed in the airport’s transit area and immigration office.
There was a similar case in 2018, when two Chinese dissidents spent four months at the airport before flying to Singapore to obtain short-term humanitarian visas. In 2019, two other dissidents stayed at the airport and in custody for nine months before obtaining asylum in Canada. Chen is lucky to have been granted political asylum in Canada after only two weeks. He has shown gratitude for help from rights groups, as well as the governments of Taiwan and Canada, for handling his case quickly and in the spirit of humanitarian care.
However, his situation has returned focus on concern that Taiwan, which is considered one of the most progressive and democratic countries in Asia, has no asylum law or a formal refugee pathway. A draft asylum law was proposed by the Ministry of the Interior in 2005, but has never been implemented, mainly because the China factor makes it a politically sensitive and complicated issue. Espionage and constitutional issues over whether Chinese should be considered foreigners or nationals are among the concerns.
People from China, including Hong Kong and Macau, have their cases reviewed individually as stipulated by the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), and the Laws and Regulations Regarding Hong Kong and Macau Affairs (香港澳門關係條例). As for refugees or asylum seekers from other countries, there no legislation for proper or prompt management.
The government was limited to “special assistance” when a Ugandan was stuck in immigration limbo for seven years after escaping mistreatment for being gay. The government has also been criticized for offering only 30-day visa extensions for Ukrainian applicants and their relatives fleeing war. The world is turbulent with a worsening ecosystem and military conflict. China’s National Security Law has also prompted rights advocates to flee, with Taiwan a prime destination.
The nation should advance asylum legislation with a focus on promulgating it next year, following the timeline of its human rights action plan. Political hurdles can be solved by adopting a dual system for Chinese and asylum seekers from elsewhere, while there are ways to prevent espionage.
Given the success of the “Taiwan can help” campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic, more could be done to bring the country’s legal systems in line with international human rights norms and humanitarian principles.
From the Iran war and nuclear weapons to tariffs and artificial intelligence, the agenda for this week’s Beijing summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is packed. Xi would almost certainly bring up Taiwan, if only to demonstrate his inflexibility on the matter. However, no one needs to meet with Xi face-to-face to understand his stance. A visit to the National Museum of China in Beijing — in particular, the “Road to Rejuvenation” exhibition, which chronicles the rise and rule of the Chinese Communist Party — might be even more revealing. Xi took the members
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Friday used their legislative majority to push their version of a special defense budget bill to fund the purchase of US military equipment, with the combined spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.78 billion). The bill, which fell short of the Executive Yuan’s NT$1.25 trillion request, was passed by a 59-0 margin with 48 abstentions in the 113-seat legislature. KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), who reportedly met with TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) for a private meeting before holding a joint post-vote news conference, was said to have mobilized her
The inter-Korean relationship, long defined by national division, offers the clearest mirror within East Asia for cross-strait relations. Yet even there, reunification language is breaking down. The South Korean government disclosed on Wednesday last week that North Korea’s constitutional revision in March had deleted references to reunification and added a territorial clause defining its border with South Korea. South Korea is also seriously debating whether national reunification with North Korea is still necessary. On April 27, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung marked the eighth anniversary of the Panmunjom Declaration, the 2018 inter-Korean agreement in which the two Koreas pledged to
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly widespread in workplaces, some people stand to benefit from the technology while others face lower wages and fewer job opportunities. However, from a longer-term perspective, as AI is applied more extensively to business operations, the personnel issue is not just about changes in job opportunities, but also about a structural mismatch between skills and demand. This is precisely the most pressing issue in the current labor market. Tai Wei-chun (戴偉峻), director-general of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence Innovation at the Institute for Information Industry, said in a recent interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times
RSS