Taiwan must show strong bipartisan support for the democratic movement in China, which is gaining prevalence in Chinese civil society, exiled Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) said in Taipei yesterday.
Wang, one of the student leaders in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration, made the remarks at a forum held by New Society for Taiwan to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party government’s bloody crackdown on student protesters.
“Regardless [of whether it is the] ruling or the opposition party, Taiwan must not be silent or absent from urging China to apologize and compensate [the victims] for what the government did in Tiananmen Square,” Wang said, adding that he was “disappointed” with apparent Taiwanese apathy to the event.
While the world focuses on the changes China has made in the last two decades, the international community should take heed of what remains the same, he said, such as rampant corruption, social injustice and strict totalitarianism.
However, he said not all was lost because he believed Chinese civil society was becoming more concerned with democracy and freedom. He said a recent forum by more than 20 of China’s leading intellectuals openly discussed the violence and injustice that occurred during the June 4, 1989, demonstration in Beijing.
Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) called on Ma to publicly acknowledge and condemn the Chinese Communist Party for what happened at Tiananmen Square, which he used to do every year since 1989, only stopping when he became president last year.
“It is a fact that China is becoming a world superpower. But despite its growing economy, it still has never apologized for what happened at Tiananmen Square,” she told the forum.
DPP standing committee member Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), another panelist at the forum, pointed to the “drastic difference” between Ma’s annual statements on each anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and his tone after he became president.
Also See: EDITORIAL: The KMT and Chinese democracy
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS