Taiwan Friends of Tibet (TFOT) yesterday criticized former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) for inviting Sichuan Province Governor Jiang Jufeng (蔣巨峰) to Taiwan, saying that Jiang was responsible for the repression and killing of Tibetan protesters during demonstrations in the province.
“We strongly condemn Wu’s invitation to Sichuan Province [Chinese Communist Party] Deputy General Secretary Jiang Jufeng — who is also the governor of the province — as monks [and civilian protesters] at Kirti Monastery in Ngaba [Chinese: Aba 阿壩] in Sichuan Province are being repressed by the military and police,” the organization said in a statement.
Wu extended the invitation at the end of a cross-strait business symposium in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, on Monday.
The invitation came about a week after several Tibet support groups in Taiwan — including the TFOT, the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Taiwan, the Regional Tibetan Women’s Association Taiwan and Students for a Free Tibet Taiwan — visited the Mainland Affairs Council to urge it to pay more attention to the situation in Sichuan, a request that the council agreed to right away.
“Top officials from Sichuan Province, according to a legislative resolution adopted in December, should be put on the list of ‘unwelcome’ guests and be banned from entering Taiwan,” the TFOT statement said. “The Mainland Affairs Council should follow up on the invitation and block Jiang’s application to visit Taiwan.”
The legislature in December passed a resolution urging the government to ban the entry of human rights violators.
More than 2,500 monks at the Kirti Monastery have been barred from leaving the monastery since March following peaceful demonstrations by both monks and the public to remember the March 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Chinese authorities launched a violent crackdown on the demonstrations, killing many, while arresting more than 300 demonstrators.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS