Deposed Chinese Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), who died last year after spending 15 years under house arrest, wrote to party leaders in 1997 asking for his freedom, a report said yesterday.
Radio Free Asia, a US-funded broadcaster, said it obtained a previously unpublished letter dated Oct. 13, 1997, in which Zhao -- purged from his position for sympathizing with pro-democracy protesters in 1989 -- asked party leaders to lift his house arrest.
"I hope this letter of mine could generate concern from the general secretary and party comrades. I hope these blatant and illegal acts that are being perpetrated under the noses of the central leadership will be stopped," a copy of the letter read.
"I hope my house arrest will be lifted soon to restore my personal freedom, so that I no longer have to live out the remainder of my years in loneliness and confinement," it said.
The letter was to be published in Hong Kong on Saturday in a book that also features essays and poems commemorating Zhao, Radio Free Asia said.
As premier and then party leader in the 1980s, Zhao spearheaded economic reforms under China's then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping (
He was ousted after sympathizing with student protesters during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, in which hundreds, if not thousands, died in a military crackdown.
"I don't know what laws I have violated," the letter said.
The house arrest had "caused great harm to the health of an old man nearly 80 years old like me," Zhao wrote.
Since 1989, Zhao's name has been rarely acknowledged by the government, which is still wary of stirring up sympathy for his liberal views.
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
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
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
RSS