China has agreed to allow a fact-finding mission by a top UN official mandated with investigating allegations of torture, the UN human rights agency said.
Manfred Nowak, the UN Human Rights Commission's special investigator on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, will visit China from Nov. 21 to Dec. 2 to meet with government officials and get a firsthand look at Chinese detention centers.
"There are all kinds of allegations ranging from Falun Gong people to dissidents about the treatment in re-education through labor camps," Nowak said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "But these are only allegations, and I want to verify or falsify them as much as possible."
Nowak said he was pleased China had for the first time "finally accepted a visit, after years of negotiations," and said Beijing had not stipulated any conditions for his trip.
"I am very happy that the government actually fully accepted my terms of reference, which means that I'm able when I'm there to visit any place of detention and to visit any detainee in private," Nowak said.
Nowak said he also would examine "in general, the way people are treated in prisons after they are convicted and in particular, those sentenced to death."
Nowak will include his findings in a report to be submitted at next year's meeting of the commission, the UN's top rights watchdog. Nowak, a Vienna law professor, is one of several experts appointed by the 53-nation body.
While China outlawed torture in 1996, activists and lawyers say it is widely practiced in the country. But China's parliament has recently enacted new rules limiting police interrogations to 12 hours in a new effort to limit abuses after a series of highly publicized complaints.
The change came amid an unusual discussion by China's state media of the widespread use of torture and coercion by police, who are under pressure to crack cases with little professional training, after a false murder conviction was overturned in April. She Xianglin (佘祥林), who was released after 11 years in prison, said he was tortured into confessing.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS