Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Hong Kongers defy Beijing, cast votes in ‘illegal’ referendum

Taipei Times

Hong Kongers cast ballots in an unofficial referendum on democratic reform yesterday, as booths opened across the territory in a poll that has enraged Beijing and drawn nearly 650,000 votes since it opened online.

Tensions are growing in the former British colony over the future of its electoral system, with residents making increasingly vocal calls to be able to choose who can run for the post of chief executive.

Students to mark pact’s anniversary

Taipei Times

Leaders of student groups and other activists hold a press conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday to announce plans for an event outside the legislature compound tomorrow evening to mark the one-year anniversary of the signing of the cross-strait service trade agreement.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times

Several student groups are planning to mark the one-year anniversary of the signing of the cross-strait service trade agreement with an event aimed at warning the government against another attempt to push through controversial bills during the Legislative Yuan’s current extra session.

The service trade agreement was signed in Shanghai on June 21 last year.

The deal had sparked strong objections even before the pact was signed and eventually led to a three-week occupation of the legislature’s main chamber earlier this year after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) tried to rush the pact through the review process.

MOFA fails to defend sovereignty

Taipei Times Editorial

When Beijing, at a UN tribunal over tensions concerning sovereignty in the South China Sea, included Taiwan and Penghu as part of its territorial claims, nobody in the government reacted or uttered a single word in response. When pressed about this by the media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) merely said: “We protested this 55 years ago.”

However, 55 years ago, the Republic of China had a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, as the sole representative of China, and the People’s Republic of China did not have a seat. Back then, nobody listened to what China had to say. Today, the situation is reversed: Now, everybody listens when China speaks, while Taiwan has no voice.

Activist calls on US voters to appeal for Chen’s release

Taipei Times

A Washington human rights organization is urging Americans to protest the continued imprisonment of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), whose medical condition is deteriorating.

In a column carried this week by the Huffington Post Web site, Human Rights Action Center founder Jack Healey called on voters to contact their US representatives and senators to press for the release of Chen, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for corruption, on health grounds.

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