World Uyghur Congress president Rebiya Kadeer told a banquet in Washington over the weekend that Taiwanese should beware of Chinese promises in case “sweet dreams turn into a nightmare.”
“Taiwan now has very good economic relations with China, but do not be held hostage to China’s economy. All people should be able to decide their own political destiny,” she told the annual US Thanksgiving Banquet held by the Greater Washington Chapter of the Taiwanese Association of America on Saturday night.
“It is an extremely scary thing to live without democracy,” she said.
In a dramatic address that drew a standing ovation, she said she had been denied a visa to visit Taiwan by the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who she said had bowed to pressure from Beijing.
“But I will visit Taiwan [again] one day, regardless of one person and his administration,” she said.
Kadeer, who was imprisoned for six years in China as a result of her protests on behalf of Uighurs, said that “in the early days,” Chinese government policies were the same toward Uighur as they are now toward Taiwanese.
The Chinese insisted that they only wanted to help, to develop and to defend the Uighur, she said.
“It was just like the propaganda that China is spreading now in Taiwan — exactly the same thing,” Kadeer said. “Many people believed that good days were coming because of Chinese government policies. They tried to be friends and treated the Uighur nicely, like they were great people. We thought they were our true friends.”
However, once China was in control, the Uighur realized there was to be no freedom or liberty.
“They arrested hundreds of thousands of our people and executed many,” she said.
Kadeer said that Beijing changed its story and told the world that it was only helping “these backward, uneducated and barbarian Uighur.”
“We have never enjoyed a moment of peace under Chinese rule,” she said. “They took our scholars and teachers and historians, and wiped them out. They pushed our people into poverty and our lands, all were confiscated and turned over to the Chinese.”
“Those Uighur who protested for their rights were arrested and many executed,” she said.
Kadeer warned Taiwan that if China took it over, Beijing would confiscate property, stop people from speaking their own language and try to destroy the national culture.
“I pray to God that the people of Taiwan will not suffer what we have suffered under Chinese rule. I hope that you will not be deceived by China’s propaganda,” she said. “Taiwan now has very good economic relations with China, but do not be held hostage by China’s economy. All people should be able to decide their own political destiny. It is an extremely scary thing to live without democracy.”
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
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
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