Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) Chairperson Chen Chu (陳菊) said yesterday at the launch of a book about her political life, Love and Combat -- Chen Chu's Political Journey, that this work is a search for determination and an incentive to manage crises. The book highlights several troublesome dealings, due to sensitive international-relations matters, with countries from where Taiwan had imported foreign workers.
"This book is not simply a record of my political journey, but a search for the persistence and motivation to solve crises, and the hope that Taiwanese society will head in the right direction," Chen said yesterday.
The book was published 24 years after her release from prison. Lu Cheng-ta (
Chen was born in Ilan in 1940 and has been a harbinger of Taiwan's democracy movement. She is often referred to as the "Big Sister" of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Chen was arrested and imprisoned for 12 years for her role in the Kaohsiung Incident, the human-rights rally which led to a crackdown by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
In the book, Lu described the day of Chen's arrest in Changhua in 1979, when around 60 secret police officers surrounded the nunnery where she was hiding and waited for her to step out of the sanctuary. On Feb. 4, 1986, she was released from jail.
Once she regained her freedom, Chen again became a human-rights activist and she worked for the Asia Pacific Human Rights Association and the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.
Between 1995 and 1998, she took over the job as the director of the Taipei City Bureau of Social Affairs and later became director of Kaohsiung City's Bureau of Social Affairs. In 1990, after President Chen Shui-bian's (
Backed by her experiences in the human rights area, as soon as she took over the chairmanship of the CLA, Chen started fighting for the rights of foreign workers. In 2002, she abolished the regulation that all female foreign workers had to undergo pregnancy tests every six months during their employment in Taiwan, as well as the regulation that prohibited them from getting married during their term of employment here.
Chen felt that these regulations violated human rights and insisted that both regulations be abolished despite loud protests by employers.
Lu also describes Chen's dealings with the countries which send workers to Taiwan -- Thailand, Vietnam, Mongolia and Indonesia -- where international-relations issues are often the crux of controversies.
For instance, in 2002, Chen was about to head for Thailand to sign a contract with the Thai labor department regarding the conditions of Thai workers in Taiwan. The day before her departure, Taiwan's representative made an emergency phone call indicating that Thailand no longer welcomed Chen's visit, as China had placed pressure on Southeast Asian countries after Vice President Annette Lu (
During the incident, Chen displayed her determination in opposing the Thai government and holding firm her belief that Taiwan should be treated with the highest respect in the international arena. Chen's eventual trip to Thailand also signified a victory for Taiwan's international relations.
"I admire Chen's determination and passion, which remained the same throughout the past 30 years. Her involvement in politics hasn't changed her heart at all," said Secretary-General to the Presidential Office and DPP campaign director, Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), at yesterday's book launch.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but