A disability rights lawyer yesterday said it was “absurd” for a Chinese journalist to criticize Taiwan’s elections, after the former China Central Television reporter ridiculed the lawyer’s appearance at a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) election rally.
On Monday’s episode of the online talk show The Night Night Show with Hello (賀瓏夜夜秀), Wang Zhian (王志安), a Chinese investigative journalist who lives in Tokyo after being blacklisted by Beijing for his work exposing corruption, appeared on the program in Taipei to discuss Taiwan’s elections and other topics.
Wang criticized the rallies put on by the major parties, saying they even “pull disabled people up [onto the stage] to rouse sympathy.”
Photo: Screen grab from YouTube
He then mimicked a speech made at a DPP rally by Chen Chun-han (陳俊翰), a DPP legislator-at-large candidate and human rights lawyer who has spinal muscular atrophy.
A producer of the show named Hawkins (霍金) in the comments of the video on Tuesday said that the disrespectful clip made it into the program due to a production oversight, and an apology has been made to Chen.
The production team would be more careful with editing in the future, he said, apologizing to viewers for any trouble caused by the clip.
Chen told reporters in Taipei that it was “absurd” for Wang to ridicule Taiwan’s elections when China “does not even have the freedom to hold elections.”
A progressive society should recognize the dignity and value of people with disabilities as human beings, he said.
In China, people with disabilities are viewed as unable to have their own ideas or stand in elections and are only used as tools for sympathy, he said.
Yet in Taiwan, anyone who is of age and has ideas is free to participate in politics, he added.
Chen said he was most disappointed by the reaction of the audience and host who laughed at Wang’s comment, adding that the host should have immediately stopped him.
Hopefully, this incident can help society reflect on its discrimination against people with disabilities, he said.
Responding to the backlash online, Wang initially refused to apologize, saying it would not bother him if he could not return to Taiwan because of the incident.
“I’m not even afraid of the Chinese Communist Party, how could I be afraid of these little ‘green communists?’” he wrote on X.
However, he later said he was willing to apologize to Chen.
“But this is not contradictory to my condemnation of the DPP’s use of disabled people as an election tool,” he added.
The National Immigration Agency yesterday said in a statement that Wang, who had left Taiwan on Sunday, would be prohibited from re-entering the country on a short-term tourist visa for five years, as his appearance on the talk show contravened the terms of his tourist visa for Chinese citizens.
Additional reporting by Hu Yu-jou, Chen Yu-fu, Jason Pan and CNA
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