Human rights and social activist Lynn Miles, a well-known fighter for Taiwanese democracy, died early yesterday morning at a hospice in New Taipei City.
The 72-year-old American, also known by his Chinese name Mei Hsin-yi (梅心怡), had been suffering from mesothelioma, a cancer linked to asbestos that attacks the membrane lining of the lungs and abdomen, for several months, and spent the past few weeks at the Tzu Chi General Hospital in Xindian District (新店). He died at 1:30am.
Miles first came to Taiwan in 1962 to study Chinese. He became friends with people such as National Taiwan University professor Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) and writer Li Ao (李敖), and in 1967, he and a German friend, Klaus-Peter Metzke, opened The Barbarian (野人咖啡室) cafe in Ximending, where people could meet and exchange ideas.
Photo: Liu Li-jen, Taipei Times
He helped Peng, who, along with two of his students, had been convicted for publishing a manifesto calling for the overthrow of the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) regime, escape house arrest and flee the nation for exile in Sweden in 1970.
The Chiang government deported Miles the following year, after he tried to help Li and Peng’s two students after they were arrested. The government blacklisted him from returning to Taiwan until 1996.
Miles moved to Osaka, Japan, where he continued his pro-democracy efforts for Taiwan, establishing the International Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Taiwan. The committee helped smuggle information about political prisoners out of Taiwan and Miles wrote reports on the political situation and the prisoners, and provided them to Amnesty International and other rights groups, reporters and churches.
Photo: Hsieh Wen-hua, Taipei Times
He spent several years in the US before returning to Taiwan once the blacklist was lifted.
He received permanent residency in Taiwan in 2006 for his “special contributions to the nation” and in recent years taught at Fu Jen Catholic University.
The New Jersey native continued to be a familiar face at protests over rights issues and spoke out on a variety of issues, including efforts to end the death penalty in Taiwan, and organizing several Peacefests. He burned his US passport in front of the American Institute in Taiwan in Taipei on March 23, 2003, to protest the US-led war in Iraq.
He coauthored with Linda Gail Arrigo a book about the human rights movement in Taiwan, A Borrowed Voice: Taiwan Human Rights through International Networks, 1960-1980, which was published in 2008.
In February, Miles was among 119 people indicted by Taipei prosecutors for taking part in Sunflower movement-linked rallies in Taipei in the spring of last year against the government’s handling of a cross-strait service trade agreement.
As Miles’ health worsened in recent weeks, several prominent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members visited him at the hospital, including DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), while a Peacefest to celebrate his life was held on May 30.
Tsai, who is currently on a trip to the US, mourned Miles’ death.
“Leaning about his passing away is a very saddening thing,” Tsai said in a statement on her official Facebook page. “As an American, he has always been a good friend of Taiwan, who long assisted Taiwan in democratization, and sincerely hopes that the Taiwanese people could live in freedom and democracy.”
She called Miles a witness of a time.
“From undemocratic to democratic, it is because of many friends like him who took actions to support us that Taiwan is able to become democratized in the end,” Tsai said. “May he rest in peace, and may he be free of all pains.”
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would