Timed to coincide with the national day of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), an online school aimed at promoting Chinese democracy was launched yesterday in Taipei by democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹).
The New School for Democracy’s first semester, which started yesterday and runs through January, offers six free Internet courses on the democratic movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the history of the PRC, China’s foreign policy, human rights and its implementation, the role of media in democracy, and a workshop on citizen journalism.
“Today [Oct. 1] was not a day to celebrate the founding of the PRC, but a national mourning day, because the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] regime has done more harm than good to the country,” Wang said at the opening ceremony.
Wang, one of the student leaders of the 1989 pro-democracy protest in Tiananmen Square in Beijing and who is now a visiting professor at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University, said he hoped the online classes would reach out to many Chinese overseas.
Meanwhile, students in China are encouraged to use anti-censorship devices to “break the cyberwall,” Wang said, adding that they are the school’s “main targets among whom we want to sow the seeds of democracy.”
The initiative is the first-ever attempt at cooperation among civil groups from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and other countries, Wang said.
The younger generation and the Internet are indispensable to China’s road to democracy, and civil groups in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and overseas have to enhance cooperation so that students can turn theory into action rather than just learning, he said.
“[Former US president John F.] Kennedy once said: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.’ Here is what I want to say: Ask not what Chinese democracy can do for you; ask what you can do for Chinese democracy,” Wang said.
Andrew To (陶君行), a member of Hong Kong’s legislative council and chairman of the League of Social Democrats, said the school would not just serve as a platform for cyberdiscussion, but would promote “social movement” by establishing connections among activists worldwide.
Joseph Cheng (鄭宇碩), a political science professor at City University of Hong Kong who is the chancellor of the New School for Democracy, was also at the launch yesterday.
Dawa Tsering, chairman of the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the de facto embassy of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Taiwan, expected the school to increase access to information for people in China.
“Authoritarian regimes are based on atrocity and lies. When people can freely access information, a false tale will betray itself,” Dawa said.
He added that he did not view China as a mighty country as some have said.
“No matter how far its material strength grows, it’s a country in spiritual vacuity. And its people are not respected because they lack freedom and a democratic system to safeguard liberty,” he said.
“From this point of view, pursuing democracy is an act of patriotism and democratization is the best gift for China,” Dawa said.
The school, first publicized in late May in Taipei, was registered in Hong Kong, with offices in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Its funding comes mainly from donations from civil groups in Hong Kong, said Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元), a board member of the school.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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