A member of the US Congress said on Wednesday that he considered the plight of former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to be a tragedy.
Addressing the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Representative Steve Chabot soundly condemned Chen’s treatment.
During a committee hearing into the threat of military and economic aggression from China, Chabot said: “I think the fact that the Taiwanese government has decided to move itself into the direction of the criminalization of politics is unfortunate.”
He added: “The previous president — president Chen Shui-bian — is still behind bars.”
“I think for an administration to come in and essentially jail the previous administration is a tragedy,” he said.
Chabot ended his statement — made during the question-and-answer period of the hearing — by saying that he thought the Ma administration should deal with Chen’s imprisonment “sooner rather than later.”
A Congressional staff member, who asked not to be quoted by name because he was not authorized to speak on this issue, said that he expected other members of the House to raise the Chen case.
He said sympathy for Chen was growing, following reports that he was in failing health and being held in a cell without a proper bed and without a table or chair.
The Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) appealed directly to US President Barack Obama last week to help Chen get medical parole so that he could receive hospital treatment.
So far, the White House has not responded.
Chen is currently serving a 17-and-a-half year term on two concurrent sentences related to corruption charges.
The former president was recently diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome, significantly reduced blood flow and a prostate tumor.
He is only allowed 30 minutes of outdoor exercise each day.
FAPA official Coen Blaauw characterized Chabot’s remarks during the Congressional hearing as “dramatic.”
“Chabot has been a very strong supporter of Taiwan. He has met Chen several times,” Blaauw said.
“There is growing awareness and growing concern among members of the US Congress about Chen’s imprisonment,” he said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal