US Senator Sherrod Brown is urging the administration of US President Barack Obama to become involved in the case of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Brown has sent a plea for help to US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell.
US representatives Robert Andrews and Dan Lungren last week sent a report calling for medical parole for Chen to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
The report, prepared by a team of independent US doctors who visited Chen in prison last month, says that Chen’s health is deteriorating steadily.
Now Brown has sent the report to Campbell asking him to give it “careful consideration.”
“Earlier this year, the people of Taiwan held national elections,” Brown said in a letter to Campbell.
“As advocates for human rights, freedom, democracy and the rule of law around the world, it is critical that we continue to support Taiwan as it builds a society based on the ideals of freedom we hold so dear,” Brown said.
Commenting on the matter, Formosan Association for Public Affairs president Mark Kao (高龍榮) said: “There is a growing chorus of congressional concern about the deterioration of Chen’s physical and mental health.”
“Senator Brown is one of the strongest and longest Taiwan supporters on Capitol Hill,” he said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
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