The US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is not planning to change the way it operates, despite Beijing’s sanctions against US non-governmental organizations working in Hong Kong, NED president Carl Gershman told the Taipei Times in an interview in Taipei on Wednesday, adding that it hopes to work more closely with Taiwan to defend democracy.
Gershman on Tuesday received the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon from President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in recognition of his contribution to the consolidation of Taiwan-US relations, as well as advancing freedom and democracy around the world.
The NED, along with the US National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the US International Republican Institute, US Human Rights Watch and US Freedom House on Dec. 2 were named by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as “abominable actors” instigating Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters to commit violent crimes and rebel against Beijing.
Photo: Lin Chia-nan, Taipei Times
The ministry said that it would sanction the US groups.
“We’re not gonna change what we do,” Gershman said when asked if the sanctions would influence the organization’s activities. “We’re not the reason that people in Hong Kong are demanding freedom.”
“They’re demanding freedom because China is trying to take it away from them... Obviously, they’re struggling for their own freedom. That’s something between people in Hong Kong and China. That has nothing to do with us,” he said.
“It’s a false issue,” Gershman said. “They’re [the Chinese government] trying to blame somebody for causing this problem,” when it is the Chinese government that is to blame for its attempt to control Hong Kongers.
Beijing does not support freedom and human dignity, as demonstrated by its concentration camps in Xinjiang and its imposition of secular rule over Tibetans, he said, describing what Beijing has done to the minorities as “cultural genocide.”
Asked if the NED has financed protesters in Hong Kong, Gershman said: “No.”
The NED provides three grants in Hong Kong for preparing periodical reviews for the UN on human rights and the rights of migrant workers, and to encourage dialogue between the government and civil society, as listed on its Web site, Gershman said.
“They’re very specific grants and nothing to do with what is going on today,” he said, adding that China’s accusations are “totally false and without any foundation whatsoever.”
The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, signed into law by US President Donald Trump on Nov. 27, is largely a statement manifesting US support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, he said when asked if the US act would be effective in helping to alleviate the territory’s crisis.
Gershman expressed the hope that there could be some temporary settlement of the confrontation in Hong Kong.
Hopefully, the protesters’ immediate objectives, such as ending police violence, could be achieved, he said, while their other goals survive.
China is threatened by Taiwan’s liberal democracy, which has proved to be dynamic, stable and successful at a time when democracy has entered a period of crisis in other parts of the world, he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in 2012 tasked the Chinese Communist Party with writing a secret communique, Document No. 9, which directs party members to intensify the struggle against the core principles of liberal democracy — constitutional government, universal values, civil society and a free media, Gershman said.
Yet, Taiwan’s experience proves that democratic principles are compatible with Confucian culture and are truly universal, and its success is more significant now that China is rising as a dictatorship, rather than a liberal democracy that it had once intended to become in the late 1990s, he said.
Asked about the possible areas of collaboration between the NED and Taiwan that would help defend democracy, he said Taiwan’s democratic transition in the 1980s and 1990s could be referenced by other nations undergoing a similar transition from an authoritarian to pluralistic system, such as Malaysia, Sudan, Tunisia and Armenia.
Taiwan’s experiences of defending against malign foreign interference, such as how it has responded to the biggest number of cross-border cyberattacks in the world, is also inspiring for other nations, he said, adding that during his stay in Taiwan, he has met with government officials and experts to discuss information security, as well as the usage of social media to enable people to participate more in the global systems that unite democracies.
Taiwan from Thursday is to reinstate visa exemptions for passport holders from 65 countries. Mandatory quarantine for arriving travelers is to be lifted on Oct. 13 , when restrictions on inbound and outbound tour groups are also to be lifted. The following is a list of answers to common questions regarding how the new regulations are to affect inbound international visitors Which passports will have visa-free entry privileges? Eleven more countries on Thursday are to join 54 countries that were given visa-free privileges on Sept. 12. Passport holders from Japan, South Korea, Chile, Israel and Nicaragua can stay in Taiwan for up to 90 days without a visa. Taiwan is also to resume 30-day visa-free stays for citizens of the Dominican Republic, Singapore and Malaysia. Passport holders from Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines are to be allowed to stay in Taiwan for 14 days visa-free. Taiwan on Sept. 12 resumed 90-day visa-free entry for passport holders from the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New
HAWAII MODEL: While Hawaii held a referendum on becoming the 50th US state, Taiwan has never applied to join the People’s Republic of China, Miles Yu said China comparing Taiwanese independence to Hawaii seeking independence from the US is illogical, as Taiwan has never applied to be a part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Hudson Institute senior fellow Miles Yu (余茂春) said over the weekend. Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅), who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, has given multiple talks asserting Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. In a speech to the Asia Society on Thursday, Wang likened Taiwan to Hawaii. “Just as the US would not allow Hawaii to break away,” Beijing “reserves the right” to seek unification, Wang told the gathering. The
PRIDE AND FURY: Supporters of the Taiwan People’s Communist Party sang in Tainan, while Taiwan loyalists in Kaohsiung vowed to ‘protect Taiwan until death’ Two small Taiwanese groups at the far ends of the debate over relations with Beijing marked the National Day of the People’s Republic of China yesterday with flag raisings and flag burnings — opposite responses at a time of rising tension over the Taiwan Strait. Oct. 1 marks the day that Mao Zedong (毛澤東) proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in 1949, with the defeated Republic of China government fleeing to Taiwan at the end of that year, where — after democratic reforms — it remains to this day, neither recognizing the other. China’s national day is not officially marked in any
Tensions over Taiwan have raised the thorny issue of whether US troops based in South Korea would be involved in any conflict, with US and South Korean officials acknowledging that the peninsula could easily be dragged into a crisis. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told CNN in an interview aired on Sunday that his country was keen to work with the US to “expand freedom,” but that in a conflict over Taiwan, North Korea would be more likely to stage a provocation and that the alliance should focus on that first. North Korea has a mutual defense treaty with China, and military
RSS