The establishment of a medical team with credibility and expertise to look after imprisoned former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would be in the interests of the country and society, former Democratic Progressive Party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
Tsai made the remarks on the sidelines of a DPP event in Miaoli City in response to media inquiries following reports on Chen’s ill health.
Chen is currently serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence in Taipei Prison for corruption. Concerned over the conditions of his confinement, and mental and physical condition, two US lawmakers last week submitted a report to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission calling for immediate medical parole for Chen.
Photo: CNA
Founder of the Human Rights Action Center, John Healey, has also recently written an open letter to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) appealing for better healthcare and cell conditions for Chen.
Tsai yesterday urged the Ma administration to “seriously consider” the establishment of a credible medical team to conduct physiological and psychological examinations on Chen.
The government should take the former president’s health and the medical care he receives seriously, Tsai said.
Meanwhile, Tsai, in an interview with the Hong Kong-based Chinese-language Apple Daily, published yesterday, reiterated that she does not rule out visiting China if there are no preconditions.
If she could visit China the same way she visited Japan and the US, with no conditions attached, “Why not [make the trip]?” Tsai said.
“But I’m not going anywhere as you can see, which tells you that the problem is on the Chinese side,” she added.
Speaking on the issue of the democratic movement in Hong Kong, Tsai said both Hong Kong and Taiwan face the same issue.
“We both have to deal with the Chinese Communist Party,” she said.
Respect should be the key word in China’s interaction with Hong Kong and Taiwan, Tsai said, adding that Beijing did not respect Taiwan, as could be seen from its interference and coercion of Taiwanese society, and that its fingerprints had been everywhere on the election for Hong Kong’s chief executive.
“Beijing must respect democracy in Taiwan and Hong Kongers’ calls for direct elections and democracy,” she said.
Tsai, who represented the DPP in the presidential election in January, was still tight-lipped on whether she was considering running in the 2016 presidential election, but said that she would like to help establish and coordinate social movements in Taiwan.
The development of social movements would be the next important step in the democratic movement in Taiwan, Tsai said.
“As a politician, you have to participate in the movement. You have to be ready to help,” she said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
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