Taiwanese should work hard to protect democracy and improve human rights so that Taiwan can “shine as a beacon for the people of China,” exiled Chinese dissident and former political prisoner Yang Jianli (楊建利) said during a visit to Taipei.
The US-based democracy advocate said that there are many programs in Taiwan to help the pro-democracy movement in China, including allowing Chinese dissidents to tell their stories in Taiwan, in an interview with the Central News Agency earlier this week.
“I hope the programs will be expanded to help Taiwanese learn more about the situation in China and realize that democratization of China would be in the interest of Taiwan,” he said.
If Taiwanese can “protect democracy and bring human rights to another level,” it will have a positive influence on China, Yang said.
Yang’s visit came after four Chinese human rights activists were convicted on subversion charges and sentenced to prison terms ranging between three and seven years, in the latest move by Beijing to crack down on activists and lawyers in the nation.
When asked to comment on the deportations of overseas Taiwanese fraud suspects to China instead of their homeland, Yang described the suspects as victims of China’s unification policy.
Beijing wants to show the world that “Taiwanese are citizens of China” and that China has jurisdiction over their cases, he said.
It was a wake-up call to Taiwan’s government and its people, Yang said, adding that it also shows that the improvement of human rights and democracy in China can “actually work in the interests of Taiwanese.”
That is the case “whether Taiwan is a part of China or not,” he added.
One of the reasons for Yang’s visit is to help plan a Freedom Forum hosted by the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, where he serves as an adviser.
The forum seeks to bring together participants from around the world to discuss political freedom and democracy issues.
Yang, 53, is seen as a major actor in China’s democracy movement and one of the most important international advocates for China’s peaceful transition to democracy.
Born in Shandong Province, he left for the US to further his studies in the 1980s after he obtained a bachelor’s degree in China.
In 1989, he returned to China to support the pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Yang said he witnessed the massacre of thousands of people by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which he said was a life-changing moment for him.
Yang barely escaped capture by Chinese authorities and returned to the US. After completing a doctorate in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, he pursued another doctorate at Harvard University — this time in the field of political economy.
After finishing his doctorate at Harvard, Yang returned to China in 2002 using a friend’s passport to help the labor movement there.
He had been banned from entering China following his involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests.
He was arrested for using fake identification documents and sentenced to five years in prison on espionage charges.
Despite an international outcry for his release, he insisted on finishing his jail term and was released in 2007, after which he returned to the US.
Once there, he formed the Initiatives for China, a pro-democracy movement advocating China’s peaceful transition to democracy.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at