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.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we