Witnessed by the ambassadors of various countries in Taiwan, Taiwan’s cross-party legislative committee established the “Legislative Yuan Human Rights Promotion Committee”, which will follow the example of the United States to promote Taiwan’s version of the Magnitsky Act, and connect with the congresses of various countries to pay attention to Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang and other human rights issues. Former June Fourth leader Wuer Kaixi said that Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China do not belong to the same country, and hoped that Taiwan would use “human rights” as a new business card and play the role of a “helper” to gain its due status in the international arena.
Nearly forty Taiwanese legislators across party lines announced the establishment of the Legislative Yuan Human Rights Promotion Committee on 24 March, and a number of participants spoke with concern about the previous day’s imprisonment of Hong Kong’s “Three Sons of Jones”.
Wang Dingyu, chairman of the Legislative Yuan Human Rights Association and a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, mentioned that Huang Zhifeng, Zhou Ting, Lin Langyan, and Hong Kong Internet radio host Jesse were all arrested, and that Jesse was only raising money on the Internet to help his compatriots have a better life in Taiwan.
Taiwan People’s Liberation Party (TPP) legislator Lai Heung-ling said that the oppression of so many outstanding young people in Hong Kong is a great warning to Taiwan. The National Assembly needs to think more carefully about how to watch and learn from each other through international exchanges, human rights, democracy and freedom.
“In the past, Hong Kong’s rule of law and democracy was better than Taiwan’s. In the past, Hong Kong was a place where Taiwan could learn from, but nowadays, Taiwan has become a beacon and guardian of democracy in Asia.
Using “human rights” as a standard to unite the world’s power against the powerful
Wang Dingyu said, “Once we used to use GNP GDP to see how developed a country is, we hope that starting this year, we can use human rights to mark how developed or developed, or to be developed, a country is. Using human rights as a standard, using human rights as a chain, we will be able to combine the power of the world.”
Tibet’s exiled government leader in the White House for the first time in six decades Lessons for Taiwan
Gao Yongcheng, Deputy Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of the Oversight Yuan, mentioned in his speech that Mr. Lobsang Senge, the Central Secretary for Tibetan Administration, was invited to visit the White House recently and was received by Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights Robert Destro in person.
Gao Yongcheng said: “He is the first leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile to enter the White House in sixty years. One of the revelations is that I don’t want Taiwan to be led by a government-in-exile that has to run around like this. The second revelation is that, as long as we stick to our values of freedom, democracy and human rights, we will one day be recognized by the international community.”
Former June Fourth Leader Wuer Kaixi: Taiwan and China Are Not One Country
Former Tiananmen leader and Uighur national, Wu’er Kaixi, has been an ID card holder in Taiwan for more than twenty years, and was invited to serve as the Deputy Secretary General of the Taiwan Legislative Yuan Human Rights Promotion Association. In his speech, Wu’er Kaixi said that the new Cold War no longer uses national borders as the frontier, and that the side effects of the previous Cold War reinforced and exaggerated national sovereignty, leading to the disadvantages of sovereignty over human rights. In the future, the Association for the Promotion of Human Rights will promote greater dialogue with Taiwanese and international NGOs.
We hope that Taiwan will use human rights as Taiwan’s new business card, and that as a helper in the world, Taiwan will be able to take its rightful place in this signboard in the world,” said Mr. Wuer Kaixi.
In this regard, a large part of the effort will be directed at officials from China, etc., who will be restricted from coming to Taiwan in the future. This will also highlight the fact that Taiwan and China are not only not the same country, but also strictly opposed to each other when it comes to human rights issues.
Witnesses of the Ambassadors in Taiwan Recognize the Promotion of Human Rights with Taiwan
The inaugural meeting of the Legislative Assembly for the Promotion of Human Rights was witnessed by ambassadors in Taiwan, and the Director of the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO), Tetsuo Kao, delivered a speech in which he said that the European Union is committed to the goal of promoting the rule of law on human rights worldwide, not only in its internal policy but also in its external policy, promoting the development of human rights, and cooperating with countries all over the world.
Grandson Meng, director of the French Institute in Taiwan, said, “In recent years, Europe has been hit by waves of terrorist attacks. In these traumatic times for France, Taiwan has never abandoned us and has always stood in solidarity with France,” said Grandson Meng, Director of the French Institute in Taiwan. Taiwan shares with France and Europe the concern for human rights and the importance of universal values. In the fight for human rights, France and Taiwan are natural partners, and the dialogue between the two sides is based on a framework of mutual respect for the free expression of different views and positions.”
AIT Political Affairs Officer Huang Guangjie noted that the United States and Taiwan are both members of the same democratic family and are closely linked by shared values.
U.S. Representative Taiwan is a natural partner of the United States
Huang pointed out that the U.S. Congress has long been concerned about human rights issues overseas, with the establishment of the Congressional and Executive Commission on China in 2001 to address the human rights situation in China, and the upgrading of the former Congressional Human Rights Panel to a Commission on Human Rights in 2008.
Jim McGovern, Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights, sent a letter of congratulations, noting that, as Chair of the U.S. Congress and the Administration’s Commission on China, and Co-Chair of the Lantos Human Rights Commission, I hope we can strengthen our joint work in the future. There will be powerful challenges ahead, so wise and well-coordinated international cooperation will be necessary to help those who struggle for human rights make progress.
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