Lives and property across the Taiwan Strait would only be protected by the inclusion of human rights clauses in the texts of the agreements between Taiwan and China, and not by lip service, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
The response was directed at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) after he said on Wednesday that he hoped cross-strait dialogue could extend beyond economic and trade issues, to encompass human rights and the rule of law.
“Human rights are the foundation of peace and people’s interests would not be protected before their human rights are protected,” said Honigmann Hong (洪財隆), director of the DPP’s China Affairs Department, in a press release.
Human rights protection should be the precondition of future cross-strait agreements and the beginning of exchanges between the civil societies of Taiwan and China, Hong said.
Otherwise, a cross-strait peace agreement, which Ma had previously hinted was one of his primary goals, would be nominal and meaningless, Hong said.
While the livelihoods of Chinese has improved after the nation’s economic rise, Beijing has not eased its oppression of human rights, evidenced by its relentless crackdown on Falun Gong followers, rights advocates, Tibetans and its tight control of the media, Hong said.
Beijing’s detention of Taiwanese Bruce Chung (鍾鼎邦) for 54 days last year was yet more evidence of China’s lack of respect of human rights, Hong said.
“Ma said human rights would be seen as the barometer to measure further cross-strait engagement. From what we’ve seen, the distance between Taiwan and China could not be farther,” Hong said.
There are many human rights-related areas the Ma administration could work on immediately, such as the inclusion of the right to appeal and safeguard mechanisms in bilateral negotiations, the establishment of an official bilateral human rights dialogue platform, a human rights watch mechanism, as well as legislation in the form of a refugee act (難民法) and a political asylum law (政治庇護法), Hong said.
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
RSS