Taiwan Democracy Watch yesterday released a manifesto entitled the “Declaration of Free Men” and called for a step-by-step process to remold relations across the Taiwan Strait on the basis of human rights.
The group of pro-democracy academics, which is scheduled to host a seminar today to discuss cross-strait human rights development, called for a two-stage approach to promote peace across the Strait in a press release, proposing an “early harvest human rights list” as a short-term goal and the signing of a human rights charter as a long-term goal.
“The protection of human rights would be the foundation of mutual political trust,” the group said.
Taiwan and China should recognize each other’s sovereignty and develop bilateral ties based on constitutionalism, it said.
The group also listed four areas in what it called an “early harvest human rights list”: human rights protection and legal assistance for detainees on both sides of the Strait, the inclusion of a human rights clause in current agreements, the signing of agreements on personal safety and protection of the freedom of the press.
The group called on China to carry out judicial reform and protect freedom of speech and publishing and on Taiwan to establish a national agency in charge of human rights, enact a statute on cross-strait agreement monitoring and bolster its compliance to international human rights covenants.
It said Taiwan and China could discuss a human rights charter, which could serve as the basis of interaction between the two sides.
“Taiwan Democracy Watch opposes any form of political negotiation and political agreement — be it called military confidence-building measures, peace accord, mid-term agreement or plan for the final political solution — before the charter is signed and fully implemented,” the group said.
“People on both sides of the Strait can discuss their future relationship only when they are free from military threats and when their rights, freedom, democracy are protected,” it said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS