Last week, the UN Human Rights Council reviewed China’s human rights record for the first time. After China submitted the record for review at the UN, developing countries praised it for its economic development and efforts to eliminate poverty.
Western countries, however, were more concerned with issues such as Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as civil and political rights.
China says it is preparing its first-ever National Human Rights Action Plan. In response, international human rights groups said that 20 years after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, China continues to persecute political dissidents, undermine press freedom and mistreat Falun Gong practitioners, Uighurs and Tibetans.
China says one thing and does another. Early in December, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) was arrested for proposing changes to China’s Constitution that included an independent judiciary, the protection of human rights, the nationalization of the military and more freedom of association for Chinese.
Despite many international calls for his release, the Chinese government, which claims to uphold a ban on torture and ensure fair trials, plans to charge Liu with a crime and his case has not yet entered the regular judicial process.
Especially worthy of attention are recent reports that human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟) has been tortured, beaten, electrocuted and had his nose and eyes burned with cigarettes while in prison. No wonder that exiled Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) has criticized China’s statements at the UN’s Human Rights Council as a “load of rubbish,” while writer Dai Qing (戴晴) has said the report they submitted was “official speak” that cannot be trusted.
China’s saying one thing and doing another is legendary. Before last year’s Olympic Games, it had promised to improve its human rights record and relax media restrictions. However, human rights groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, recently said that China failed to deliver on those promises. They have stated that China has made no improvements in human rights and press freedom and that last year, China clamped down even harder on the media, including Internet-based media, thus keeping its record as the country arresting the most journalists in the world. China’s failure to treat its citizens properly makes its socioeconomic problems even more likely to cause disaster during this time of global economic crisis.
The Dalai Lama warned a few days ago that the situation in Tibet was very tense and that riots could occur. The total disregard for human rights by one-party dictagorship makes it very hard for China to establish a harmonious and civilized society and to become a respected great power.
We cannot afford to ignore the state of China’s human rights and democracy. The old Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) used to talk of “peaceful transformation” and helping Chinese democracy activists financially, as did the Democratic Progressive Party government.
However, the new KMT has remained silent at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) mistreatment of its citizens. More importantly, freedom and human rights in Taiwan have decayed following President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) accession to power and closer cooperation between the KMT and the CCP.
We must be mindful of the closer relations between Taiwan’s quasi-one-party state and China and the implications this has for Taiwan. As the saying goes: “One can be judged by the company one keeps.”
Lu Shih-hsiang is an adviser to the Taipei Times.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
Two weeks ago, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) raised hackles in Taiwan by posting to her 2.6 million Instagram followers that she was visiting “Taipei, China.” Yeoh’s post continues a long-standing trend of Chinese propaganda that spreads disinformation about Taiwan’s political status and geography, aimed at deceiving the world into supporting its illegitimate claims to Taiwan, which is not and has never been part of China. Taiwan must respond to this blatant act of cognitive warfare. Failure to respond merely cedes ground to China to continue its efforts to conquer Taiwan in the global consciousness to justify an invasion. Taiwan’s government
This month’s news that Taiwan ranks as Asia’s happiest place according to this year’s World Happiness Report deserves both celebration and reflection. Moving up from 31st to 27th globally and surpassing Singapore as Asia’s happiness leader is gratifying, but the true significance lies deeper than these statistics. As a society at the crossroads of Eastern tradition and Western influence, Taiwan embodies a distinctive approach to happiness worth examining more closely. The report highlights Taiwan’s exceptional habit of sharing meals — 10.1 shared meals out of 14 weekly opportunities, ranking eighth globally. This practice is not merely about food, but represents something more
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
RSS