Civic groups yesterday urged the government to establish a formal asylum system to create a haven for human rights after China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law took effect on July 1.
The law prohibits “acts that undermine ethnic unity and create ethnic division,” and states that any organization or person within or outside the People’s Republic of China that commits such acts would be held legally responsible.
At a news conference in Taipei, representatives of civic groups tore up red pieces of paper bearing the national emblem of the People’s Republic of China and the name of the law.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Article 21 of the law requires Chinese authorities to promote cross-strait exchanges that would “enhance Taiwanese compatriots’ sense of belonging, identification and pride in the Chinese people,” thereby unilaterally imposing a national identity on Taiwanese, Judicial Reform Foundation executive committee member and lawyer Chang Ching-Ju (張靜如) said.
Article 10 effectively imposes an obligation on Taiwanese to uphold China’s goal of unification, while Article 63 allows Chinese authorities to hold overseas organization or people legally accountable for acts directed at the People’s Republic of China that authorities deem to undermine “ethnic unity,” she said.
The Judicial Reform Foundation is conducting preliminary research into whether Taiwan’s existing laws can protect the public from extraterritorial jurisdiction or cross-border law enforcement and would consider proposing amendments, Chang said.
The group aims to complete the report by the end of the year, she added.
Taiwan has long lacked an asylum system and instead handles asylum requests case by case, Chang said.
The need for a legally codified system is even more urgent considering the current circumstances, she said.
New School for Democracy secretary-general Cecil Kung (龔欽龍) said the government should establish a high-level, interagency coordination mechanism to oversee responses to transnational legal and security issues arising from China’s new law.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) has said that people should not assume that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would apply the law to people overseas.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights senior researcher Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔) called Lin’s comments an endorsement of the CCP’s authoritarian rule and a tacit acceptance of China’s human rights violations.
“We strongly condemn the KMT for not only failing to denounce the law, but intentionally seeking to defend it,” Shih said.
It is not a law, but rather a tool through which the CCP seeks to suppress people under authoritarian rule and extend the long arm of the law beyond its borders, he added.
Under the law, anyone who criticizes the CCP or is deemed to undermine “ethnic unity” could be subject to human rights abuses, whether they are Chinese living overseas, Taiwanese, Hong Kongers or nationals of any other country, Shih said.
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