Taiwanese legal associations and human rights groups yesterday accused the Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate of turning a blind eye to abuses against human rights lawyers.
“It’s not just that China does not meet international standards — it does not even measure up to its own standards in its criminal code,” Taiwanese Lawyers Network for the Support of Chinese Human Rights deputy convener John Wei (魏千峰) said in Taipei.
The Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate earlier this week rejected a petition by several relatives of lawyers, which called for it to file charges against the security services and prosecutors over legal breaches in their handling of the lawyers’ cases.
Many Chinese lawyers have been arrested since July last year as part of an official crackdown on the “rights protection” movement.
“According to the criminal code, you are supposed to allow the relatives hire a lawyer when someone is arrested, but what has actually happened is that no one knows where the lawyers are, or the family’s lawyer is not permitted to speak with them, or the government requires that they be represented by a government-appointed attorney,” Wei said.
Family members have also been put under surveillance or house arrest in violation of the criminal code, he said.
Activists showed a video in which the wives of arrested lawyers Li Heping (李和平), Xie Yanyi (謝燕益) and Wang Quanzhang (王全璋) said they had been forced to move house and threatened that their children would not be allowed to attend school.
“Only a government which has no faith in itself would resort to these kinds of methods,” said Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), who chairs the legislature’s human rights caucus, accusing the Chinese government of putting pressure on family members to compensate for the weakness of its criminal charges.
Taipei Bar Association human rights committee chairman Wang Lung-kuan (王龍寬) said the Chinese government this month announced amendments to the regulations governing legal firms, requiring them to curb the activities of any “rights protection” lawyers they employ.
“They have now moved beyond the courtroom to seek total control over what lawyers can do, banning them from supporting protests or signing petitions,” Wang said.
Wei said that China is unique in revoking the licenses of lawyers who become the subject of official displeasure.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to