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.
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
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
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of