The nation’s delegates to this year’s APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting should urge the establishment of an Asia-Pacific human rights court, civic groups said yesterday.
The delegates should also urge that Taiwanese who have gone “missing” in China be included on international rescue lists, the groups added.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) was on Tuesday tapped by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to represent the nation at the meeting that begins on Friday next week via videoconferenceing.
Photo: CNA
Other delegation members include National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) and Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中).
At a news conference in Taipei, Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said that personal liberty and safety is an important issue in the Asia-Pacific region and the delegates should propose the establishment of a human rights court.
This plan should be included in the APEC Post-2020 Vision, Lai said.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔) said that there are 402 cases of Taiwanese and Hong Kongers who have faced human rights infringements in China.
The cases include those of Taiwanese Lee Ming-che (李明哲) and Lee Meng-chu (李孟居), and that of 12 Hong Kongers who tried to travel to Taiwan to seek political asylum, but were detained in Shenzhen, China.
Lee Ming-che was detained on March 19, 2017, after entering China from Macau. He used to work for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and was a staff member at Wenshan Community College in Taipei, as well as a volunteer at the non-governmental organization Covenant Watch.
He was convicted of subversion of state power in September 2017 and sentenced to five years in prison
Activist Morrison Lee (李孟居) traveled to Hong Kong in August last year and attended anti-extradition bill protests, with plans to travel to Shenzhen for business two days later. He was later confirmed to be detained by the Chinese government on grounds of being a “threat to state security.”
Taipei Bar Association human rights committee chairman Wang Lung-kuan (王龍寬) said that commerce and human rights should not be treated as separate issues.
If a country does not guarantee the safety and uphold the rights of foreign businesspeople, they might stop coming to do business there, Wang said.
Independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said that there is evidence suggesting that China does not only target Taiwanese and Hong Kongers, but potentially all foreigners.
If the Asia-Pacific region wishes to prosper and see positive integration of the region’s many economies, personal liberties and basic human rights must be guaranteed, he added.
“We in Taiwan are comparatively progressive in our views on democracy, liberties and human rights, even though there is room for improvement,” Lim said.
Many of those who face oppression in China are looking to Taiwan to give them a voice, Lim said, adding that Taiwan should assume this role in the region.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS