Given the complex and close ties between Taiwan and China, the Taiwanese public and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) have a heavy mandate to defend democratic movements in China and urge the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to immediately release prominent dissident writer Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), a group of human rights advocates said in Taipei yesterday.
Liu was the lead drafter of “Charter 08,” a document initiated by more than 300 Chinese academics, social activists, lawyers, writers and others calling for substantial legal reforms within the Chinese government as friction increases between ordinary citizens and the authorities.
Even prior to the release of the document on Dec. 10, some signatories of the manifesto were harassed by the Chinese police with unwarranted searches, detentions, close surveillance and arrests. Liu has been held incommunicado since his arrest two weeks ago.
The Wall Street Journal reported that more than 5,000 people have added their names to the manifesto since the document was released.
“The demands of the manifesto are not extreme. They are basic human rights that should be enjoyed by all people in the world. The Charter 08 movement is both reasonable and peaceful,” said Huang Mo (黃默), a Soochow University professor, at Liberty Square yesterday.
The advocates demanded that Beijing respond to the manifesto and urged Ma to stand up to Beijing.
“During the Tibetan uprising prior to the Olympics, Ma stood in this place and called for a boycott of the games if the CCP continued to suppress the Tibetans. Now he has become the president, he does not dare say anything [against Beijing] and in fact, has refused to let the Dalai Lama visit Taiwan,” said Yang Chang-cheng (楊長鎮), executive director of the Deng Liberty Foundation.
Cai Lujun (蔡陸軍), a Chinese dissident who was smuggled into Taiwan three years ago, warned Ma that “kneeling subservience will not win you dignity or equality” when dealing with the Chinese totalitarian regime.
The US government issued a statement on Thursday last week calling on Beijing “to release Liu and cease harassment of all Chinese citizens who peacefully express their desire for internationally recognized fundamental freedoms.”
A similar refrain was made by the EU on Wednesday when it called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the reason for Liu’s arrest and the conditions of his detention.
“It also calls for Mr Liu’s fundamental rights and those of the other people arrested in the last few days to be respected and for the principle of freedom of expression to be observed in China in all circumstances,” the statement said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS