US president-elect Barack Obama is under pressure to urge China to free democracy dissident Wang Bingzhang (王炳章) who is serving a life sentence on charges of spying for Taiwan.
Obama, who takes over in the White House next week, is aware of the case and sources close to his top foreign policy advisers said it was under serious consideration.
The Washington Post published an article by Wang’s 19-year-old daughter Ti-Anna Wang on Sunday and the Congressional Record is carrying a 1,000-word statement on the issue.
“Dr Wang’s ordeal bears the markings of so many Chinese dissidents who have been robbed of their freedom and endured severe hardship at the hands of their captors,” said Congressman Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia.
Taiwan, the US, Canada, the EU, the UN and Amnesty International have all called on the Chinese government to release Wang.
But if Obama becomes directly involved after taking power he could add a strong new influence.
In her Washington Post article, Wang’s daughter — named Ti-Anna in commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre — said: “Despite China’s economic success, it is still a country that has yet to embrace universally accepted values of human rights. Any government that jails its own people for political dissent still has a long way to go to become a respected member of the international community.”
Wang Bingzhang left China in 1979, moving first to Montreal and later to New York, becoming a founding member of the Chinese overseas democracy movement.
In 2002 he flew to Vietnam to meet two Chinese labor activists when he was kidnapped, beaten, blindfolded and abducted into China by boat. He was left bound and gagged in a Buddhist temple in Guangxi Province for the Chinese authorities to find.
Charged with terrorism and with spying for Taiwan, he was sentenced to life in prison, where he is kept in solitary confinement.
A number of business executives, academics, journalist and political activists with overseas connections have been arrested by China in recent years and accused of committing espionage for Taiwan.
Their cases are generally heard in closed courts where little or no evidence is required for conviction.
Family members who have recently visited Wang Bingzhang in prison say that he is becoming mentally ill, that he has suffered two strokes, has heart problems and a painful skin allergy.
In an address to the US Congress a few days ago Congressman Wolf said: “One thing we learned from president Ronald Reagan in his dealings with the Soviet Union is that it both inspires hope in the oppressed and shames the oppressors when we raise the individual cases of political and religious prisoners like Dr Wang.”
Human Rights Watch, one of the most effective of all the international human rights watchdogs, will issue its annual World Report later this week and is urging the incoming Obama administration to put human rights at the center of foreign, domestic and security policy.
The new 564-page report is likely to contain a scathing review of China’s treatment of political dissidents such as Wang.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS