Taiwanese and Chinese democracy advocates yesterday said they would organize a major commemorative event in Taipei to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Headed by Taiwan Independence Party Chairman Peter Ku (古文發) and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) executives, the groups called on lawmakers to pass amendments to stop China’s espionage and infiltration efforts, and to counter Beijing’s “united front” tactics.
“We are worried about our cherished freedom and democracy due to recent actions by Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and other Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] members to sell out Taiwan to China,” Ku said.
“It is obvious that Beijing has been pouring money and providing incentives to Han and the KMT to buy them off. They are betraying our national sovereignty, and sacrificing Taiwanese” to China, Ku added.
Former TSU lawmaker Chou Ni-an (周倪安) said that a majority of Taiwanese do not want closer political and economic integration with China, as seen in the Sunflower movement protests five years ago to block the then-KMT government’s proposed trade agreement with China.
However, the nation is now under an even greater threat of Chinese political warfare and propaganda to undermine Taiwanese society, Chou said.
“We are very disappointed with the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP], because government agencies and officials have done nothing to fight against China’s fake news, financial backing for pro-China media outlets and business companies or Beijing’s various ‘united front’ tactics,” Chou said.
“The DPP government has also done very little to strengthen the national identity of Taiwanese, and has disregarded the urgent need to bolster the healthy development of Taiwanese culture, languages and sense of nationhood,” Chou added.
Joining them to form a broad international network were exiled Chinese writer Yuan Hongbing (袁紅冰), Anti-Communist China secretary-general Cheng Shuiyuan (成水炎) the Anti-Xi Democracy Revolutionary Alliance and delegates from the Global Coordination Center for Chinese Expose Revolution.
They were joined by representatives from the Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association, along with other dissidents and Chinese democracy advocates.
Yuan said that China’s rising political power and military expansion have become the biggest threat to humanity and have put world peace at risk.
“While Beijing wants to annex Taiwan, the Chinese hegemony and its economic clout are also threatening other countries in Asia. China is working to export its form of totalitarian government to Taiwan, with its heavy-handed censorship, human rights violations and atrocities against ordinary people,” Yuan said.
He urged the US and other nations to support Taiwan at this critical juncture, saying: “Due to the strategic geographic position in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan has become the most important pillar of strength in the fight against Chinese hegemony and its totalitarian way of government. Taiwan is on the front line in the battle to protect freedom and democracy for all humanity.”
Cheng said that the alliance between the Taiwanese groups and Chinese dissidents in exile can stimulate China’s democratization, adding that joint commemorations would be held to mark the Tiananmen Massacre and remember the victims of the 228 Massacre on its 72nd anniversary.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS