Several groups of Americans will begin a boycott of products made in China on Saturday with the theme of "one small step for a shopper, one giant leap for freedom and human rights," an organizer of the event said.
Exiled Chinese dissidents, the China Support Network and the Tibetan Freedom Cause have waited years for the right occasion to launch "the mother of all boycotts," according to John Kusumi, Executive Director of the China Support Network.
It is to be a consumer boycott "for freedom, and against products made in China. We want to free China and free Tibet," Kusumi said. He issued a "statement of conscience" for the campaign that included the following:
"Freedom from communist oppression. That is the thread which unites the purpose of all those working for the advancement of this boycott. Chinese dissidents support this boycott for Chinese freedom. Tibetans support this boycott for Tibetan freedom. The China Support Network supports freedom for all -- Chinese, Taiwanese, Tibetans.
"Freedom from communist oppression will mean the most to those who now suffer in slave labor camps; to those who are now tortured by Chinese authorities; to those who are being displaced from their homes in Tibet; or, to those who are coping with the trauma of a forced abortion.
"Where China uses slave labor to produce cheaper products, that is economic dirty pool. It forces American workers to compete with slave labor, violating the economic spirit of America's Emancipation Proclamation.
"Americans should be outraged at free trade with China, and we hope that workers and the fair trade lobby will join us in our worldwide effort,"
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
China is likely to focus on its economy over the next four years and not set a timetable for attempting to annex Taiwan, a researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday. In the article titled “Why China isn’t scared of Trump: US-Chinese tensions may rise, but his isolationism will help Beijing,” Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) wrote that the US and China are unlikely to go to war over Taiwan in the next four years under US president-elect Donald Trump. While economic and military tensions between the US and China would
RSS