The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) announced plans yesterday to send a "human-rights torch" around the world and called for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to condemn human-rights abuses in China.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator William Lai (賴清德), president of CIPFG's Asian chapter, said individuals or organizations that support the protest will be able to sign up online to welcome the torch.
The torch relay plan was simultaneously announced in Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong yesterday, Lai said.
"So far, organizations or individuals in dozens of cities across five continents have signed up to welcome the torch," he said. "We assure you that, at the very minimum, the torch will pass through as many cities across the five continents."
A detailed route and itinerary will be announced later, he said.
A Chinese Falun Gong practitioner told reporters at the press conference that her children are still being harassed in China because of her beliefs.
Nie Shuwen (
"Although I escaped the persecution of the Chinese Communist Party, they often harass my children in Shanghai," Nie said.
Organ harvesting in China was another topic discussed at the news conference.
"The purpose of organ donation technology is to help people, but now, because it's killing people through misuse, I have to stand up against it as a doctor," said Kuo Cheng-tien (
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS