Condemning China’s repression of human rights in Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, a coalition of 16 advocacy groups yesterday called for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The non-governmental organizations urged the Legislative Yuan to join 11 Western nations and parliaments, and pass a resolution calling on the government to withdraw from the Beijing Games.
The Taiwan-based Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee should refrain from sending athletes to the winter games and change its name to Taiwan Olympic Committee, they said in a statement.
Photo: Screen grab by Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The International Olympic Committee should seek another venue other than Beijing for the Games, while the public should boycott any brands that sponsor the event, they said.
China’s behavior toward Taiwan and ethnic minorities shows that it does not care to be a good neighbor or to abide by the rule of law, Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔) told a virtual news conference.
Allowing China to host the Games on the centennial of the Chinese Communist Party’s founding would embolden Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), as the Munich Games did with Hitler, New School for Democracy chairman Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元) said.
China’s tyrannical elimination of general elections in Hong Kong has made it impossible for the territory’s residents to feel pride in Chinese athletes’ participation in the Games, he said.
“Having athletes compete peacefully inside a venue while the most unsportsmanlike enslavement of an entire society is being played outside would be the ultimate irony,” he said.
China has instituted a surveillance system to transform the Xinjiang region into a prison without walls for an entire population, Taiwan East Turkestan Association president He Chao-tung (何朝棟) said.
Taiwan should stand up to China’s saber-rattling, and the International Olympic Committee should support human rights and the people and countries being oppressed by Beijing, He said.
China’s speech and conduct are unbecoming of the Olympic spirit, Taiwan Hong Kong Association secretary-general Lee Chih (李淇) said.
Beijing should not be allowed to host the Winter Olympics while it commits genocide and abuses human rights, she added.
The world does not wish to see the Olympics become a platform for another fascist regime to spread totalitarianism, Taiwan United Nations Alliance spokesman Tseng Tsung-kai (曾琮愷) said.
“Appeasing China now means allowing the destruction of the pathway to democracy for the world,” he said.
Beijing has mandated that clergy are to preach core socialist values from the pulpit as part of its program to promote Christianity with Chinese characteristics, Che-lam Presbyterian Church pastor Huang Chun-sheng (黃春生) said.
The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan thereby requests the government to bar officials from attending the Beijing Winter Olympics, per the recommendation of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, he said.
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER: In Germany, the sector would be developed around Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s plant, and extend to Poland and the Czech Republic The Executive Yuan’s economic diplomacy task force has approved programs aimed at bolstering the nation’s chip diplomacy with Japan and European nations. The task force in its first meeting had its operational mechanism and organizational structure confirmed, with Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) the convener, and Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) and Minister Without Portfolio Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) the deputy conveners. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) would be the convener of the task force’s strategy group in charge of policy planning for economic diplomacy. The meeting was attended by the heads of the National Development Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the
RSS