Twenty-one exiled Chinese democracy activists condemned Beijing's violent crackdown on protests in Tibet during a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
"We cannot and will not be silent," the activists said in a joint statement. "Our silence will be a message to the brutal Chinese Communist Party [CCP] regime that it could benefit from the Olympics while hurting its own people."
The activists, who came from several countries, including the US and Australia, have come to Taiwan to observe tomorrow's presidential election.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
They went into exile following their participation in various campaigns or demonstrations for democracy, including the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989.
"A beast does not show its wild side everyday -- but it does at key moments," said Yang Jianli (楊建利), chairman of the Institute for China in Taiwan.
"A lot of people have the wrong idea about the communist regime" because of China's rapid economic development, Yang told the press conference. "People forget that the Chinese communists have always been violent at heart."
Wang Dan (
Hence, all those who are threatened by the regime, "whether you're Tibetan, Taiwanese, a Falung Gong practitioner, a member of the underground churches, or a democracy activist, we should all stand together to make change," Wang said.
Xue Wei (薛偉), president of the Chinese Democratic Solidarity Union, accused the Beijing government of being insincere about peacefully resolving the Tibet issue.
"Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao [溫家寶] said that he will hold talks with the Dalai Lama under two conditions: first, the Dalai Lama give up Tibetan independence, and second, the Dalai Lama must urge the Tibetans to stop acts of violence," Xue said.
"But these two conditions are what the Dalai Lama has been advocating for years," he said.
The activists further urged the Chinese government to allow freedom of the press, release all political prisoners, stop arrests of human rights and democracy activists and ban blacklisting.
In another media conference, Tibetan Representative to Taiwan Tsegyam showed pictures of the dead bodies of demonstrators and video clips of military trucks and tanks moving into Tibet.
The Tibetan government in exile had received the images from various media organizations and private sources, he said.
"These images show that the killing and repression are still going on," Tsegyam said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS