Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Legal authorities are ‘abusing powers’

Taipei Times

Taiwan March representatives Chen Wei-ting, left, and Lin Fei-fan, right, speak at a press conference in the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday organized to protest at what they called the government’s excessive reliance on lawsuits and invasion of people’s medical records as it investigates the occupation of the legislature.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

Lawyers, student leaders and a legislator yesterday accused law-enforcement agencies, including prosecutors and the police, of abusing their powers and intimidation for summoning and questioning hundreds of Sunflower movement participants since the movement’s protests ended on April 10.

More than 400 people have been questioned or investigated by the prosecutors and the police, who obtained the protesters’ personal and medical information — sometimes illegally — since the three-week-long occupation of the Legislative Yuan’s main chamber, they said.

Sunflower and Tiananmen protests

Ming-yeh Rawnsley 蔡明燁

It has been 25 years since the tanks of the People’s Liberation Army rolled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Western media often portrayed the 1989 protest as a pro-democracy movement and it was eventually framed in a “man versus tank” Cold War ideology with an “end of history” rhetoric. While democratization was an important appeal for students and intellectuals who were involved in the Tiananmen protest, a central concern for Chinese workers and other urban dwellers was the demand for social equality and justice.

Taiwan can learn from Tiananmen

Joyce Huang

This week, it will be 25 years since the authorities in Beijing put down the student protests at Tiananmen Square. It is an important moment to reflect on what happened in those dark days. The spirit and the courage of the students still resonates with people all over the world. In commemorating June 4, 1989, we should also ask how China has changed in those 25 years, and what the lessons are for Taiwan.

In the past two decades, China has made progress in advancing living standards to raise some of the poor into the middle class and some have become wealthy. There has been rapid economic growth. People in the middle class are able to enjoy a better life. Nevertheless, in terms of political and civil rights, society remains stuck in an authoritarian mode and the rulers in Beijing refuse to acknowledge what happened in 1989.

Amnesty says nation must still improve human rights

Taipei Times

Amnesty International Secretary-General Salil Shetty speaks in an interview in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

Taiwan has made significant progress in the past 30 years in terms of human rights protection, Amnesty International (AI) secretary-general Salil Shetty said yesterday.

However, he said there is still room for improvement — especially when it comes to police brutality and the use of torture against peaceful demonstrators.

On his first visit to Taiwan, Shetty said it does not feel like an unfamiliar country, because AI, along with other global human rights organizations, have worked with Taiwan before, including efforts to rescue political prisoners during the Martial Law era.

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