Today, we mark Human Rights Day to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN this year is using the day to honor the millions of people in North Africa and the Middle East who have taken to the streets throughout the year to demand their rights and to honor all defenders of human rights.
As the UN noted, “human rights bind us together as a global community with the same ideals and values,” something so aptly proven with the Jasmine Revolution in a region where for decades autocrats had said they were all the protections their people needed.
Closer to home, Taiwan’s human rights record remains a mixed bag. There has been a massive improvement since 1987, but there remain concerns about freedom of the press, as a recent survey for the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy showed. Respondents to the poll last month gave Taiwan a rating of 3.03 on a scale of 5 (1 being the worst and 5 the best), a marginal improvement over last year. Respondents ranked the government’s performance in safeguarding media freedom and independence at just 3.1, down from 3.18 last year and 3.24 in 2009. Of even greater concern were the scores given to judicial independence (2.34) and fairness in trials (2.35), demonstrating a clear need for long-awaited judicial reform efforts.
The Taiwan Brain Trust was even more critical, saying in a report that Taiwan has moved backward on human rights issues under President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, citing the government’s suppression of protesters during a visit by Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) in November 2008.
One commentator on the report said Taiwan’s human rights situation has backtracked to a level comparable to China’s. That may be a bit harsh, but it does raise concerns about Ma’s headlong rush to push greater cross-strait ties and relations. There are many areas where China lags far behind Taiwan and its legal system is one of them, as many Taiwanese businesspeople have found out to their dismay.
While the government has for years pushed common languages and cultural traditions as reasons why this nation can serve as a stepping stone to doing business in China — and many Taiwanese have jumped at that chance — they have all ignored that lack of legal protections in China they take for granted at home, such as a system that pays more than lip service to the rule of law.
Chang Chiu-lin (張九麟) found out the hard way what happens when a Taiwanese businessperson gets caught up in the Kafkaesque nightmare that is China’s legal system when he ran afoul of a Chinese associate in 2009 and told his story this week about his seven months in an Anhui prison on a fraud conviction.
Australian businessman Matthew Ng (吳植輝) was jailed on Tuesday for 13 years on bribery and embezzlement charges because his company allegedly ran up against one owned by the Guangzhou City Government. His family and lawyer weren’t informed ahead of time that a verdict would be handed down this week — perfectly legal under China’s opaque system.
The harshness of China’s authoritarian system was also spotlighted this week with the brief release on the Internet of leaked footage of a security operation in Tibet. A 100-person paramilitary squad, with dogs and an armored personnel carrier, raided a village overnight and arrested several people in 2008, apparently for the main crime of being Tibetan. The overwhelming force used against sleeping Tibetans seemed far out of proportion to any “security threat” their Chinese overlords might claim they represent.
So on this Human Rights Day, we should give thanks to all those brave souls who have sacrificed their lives and their freedom over the past decades — and this year — in the pursuit of democracy and human rights for all. And we should give extra thanks that we don’t live under Chinese rule.
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has long wielded influence through the power of words. Her articles once served as a moral compass for a society in transition. However, as her April 1 guest article in the New York Times, “The Clock Is Ticking for Taiwan,” makes all too clear, even celebrated prose can mislead when romanticism clouds political judgement. Lung crafts a narrative that is less an analysis of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality than an exercise in wistful nostalgia. As political scientists and international relations academics, we believe it is crucial to correct the misconceptions embedded in her article,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
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