A member of the US Congress is urging US Secretary of State John Kerry to “take a stance” on the treatment of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
“I believe it is the duty of the State Department, on behalf of the United States, to address Chen’s plight,” US Representative Robert Andrews said.
“While human rights activists have continually pointed out the deplorable conditions present in many of Taiwan’s prisons, there is reason to believe that Chen is receiving more severe treatment than the other prisoners,” Andrews wrote in a letter to Kerry.
Chen, serving a 20-year sentence on corruption charges, is currently receiving treatment for heart problems, gastric distress, severe depression and vascular dementia in Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
However, Andrews says that it is his “understanding” that as soon as doctors clear Chen, he will be returned to prison and would be “subject to the same conditions which caused his many ailments.”
In July last year, Andrews submitted a medical report to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on the effects of incarceration on Chen’s mental and physical health.
“I think for an administration to come in and essentially jail the previous administration is a tragedy,” US Representative Steve Chabot told a Congressional hearing last year.
Chabot said that charges against Chen amounted to a “criminalization of politics” and compared Taiwan to a “banana republic.”
Formosa Association for Public Affairs president Mark Kao said that Taiwanese-Americans were “outraged” by the treatment of Chen.
“The chorus of proponents of medical parole for Chen continues to spread and continues to grow,” Kao said.
Meanwhile, Chen’s office yesterday said in a press release that the former president is set to have surgery today at Taipei Veteran General Hospital to treat hemorrhoids.
The office cited Chen’s private medical team as saying that the surgery was necessary because Chen’s hemorrhoids were worsening due to lack of exercise and treatment.
Chen fell down in his hospital room last week, the fourth time he has collapsed since being imprisoned, prompting further concerns over his deteriorating health.
Chen was diagnosed with a fracture in the last vertebra of his coccyx and could sustain a concussion in a fall, the medical team said.
Additional reporting by Chris Wang
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but