Former Chinese basketball national team player Chen Kai (
Chen moved to the US after getting married, and it was there, he said, that he began to learn about democracy.
He was shocked when he saw the violent response of the Chinese government to pro-democracy student demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989, he said.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I thought economic reform would bring about political reform -- but I never imagined that such a massacre could happen in an apparently prosperous age," he told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
With human rights violations still a serious problem in China, Chen launched his "Olympic Freedom T-shirt Movement" in the US last year.
"I'm neither asking you to boycott the Beijing Olympics, nor to protest against the authoritarian regime of the Chinese Communist Party by not participating in the Olympics, but to follow the conscientiousness and courage in your soul and join the worldwide Olympic freedom T-shirt campaign to show your support for universal humanitarian values."
He encouraged Taiwanese athletes and visitors to wear the T-shirt as they travel to Beijing for the Games in August.
Sheng Yang Chang-ying (
"Rather, he is just asking that those who agree with him do as much as they can to make their protest heard," she said.
To promote the movement, Chen has worn the T-shirt while participating in runs in several cities in the US, Canada, Australia and Germany.
Every person who has participated in the runs has received the free T-shirt.
Chen hopes to wear the T-shirt and run at least in Hong Kong, if not in China proper, Sheng Yang said.
The slogan, "Beijing 1989 -- Tiananmen, Beijing 2008 -- Olympics" appears on the T-shirt, with blood stains printed over the words. Underneath the slogan is a large picture of the Statue of Liberty used by Tiananmen Square demonstrators in 1989.
The Olympic spirit is that of freedom, not appeasing or compromising to an authoritarian regime that enslaves its own people, Chen said.
"We should remember the 1936 Olympics in Berlin -- millions of innocent people were being tortured and murdered by the Nazi regime [after the Olympic Games were held]," he said.
"History should absolutely not repeat itself," he said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS