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Rights violators unwelcome: council
UNANIMOUSThe Kaohsiung City Council has sent its motion to
bar Chinese officials who have been accused of violating human rights to the
city and central governments
By Hou Cheng-hsu / Staff Reporter
The Kaohsiung City Council recently passed a motion demanding that the city
government and private organizations not be allowed to invite to the city
Chinese officials who have been accused of violating human rights. The motion
included making the same suggestion to the central government, asking it to
refuse such officials entry to Taiwan.
With Chinese officials increasingly leading delegations to Taiwan, Kaohsiung
City Councilor Kang Yu-cheng (康裕成) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
suggested that Chinese officials who have violated human rights should be
refused entry to the country.
The motion was supported by councilors from both the pan-blue and pan-green
camps last week and it has now been submitted to the Mainland Affairs Council,
the National Immigration Agency and the Kaohsiung City Government.
Kang said that because Guangdong Province Governor Huang Huahua (黃華華), Shaanxi
Province Vice Governor and Acting Governor Zhao Zhengyong (趙正永), State
Administration of Religious Affairs Director Wang Zuoan (王作安) and Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) Deputy Secretary of Hubei Province Yang Song (楊松) all have
allegedly participated in China’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Falun
Gong practitioners in Taiwan had filed a criminal lawsuit with the Taiwan High
Court Prosecutors’ Office against them when they visited Taiwan.
The central government should investigate the human rights record of these
Chinese officials when checking their applications to enter Taiwan, Kang said.
Adding that Kaohsiung City is a modern metropolis that protects human rights,
Kang said both the city and private organizations should therefore highlight the
universality of human rights. If it is discovered that Chinese officials
planning to visit Kaohsiung have a track record of violating human rights or if
they have been charged and are being tried in court, such officials should not
be invited, welcomed or given any support, she said.
While Falun Gong practitioners are suffering heavy persecution by the CCP, the
motion is not aimed at pleasing the Falun Gong; no one who is guilty of
persecuting anyone else should be welcomed to Kaohsiung, she said.
“I am very excited over the fact that the motion was unanimously passed by both
the pan-green and pan-blue camps,” Kang added.
DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Chou Lin-wen (周玲玟) said that while China was
important to the global economy, it ignores human rights and democracy.
“Kaohsiung is a friendly city but many people don’t know very much about CCP
persecution and that is why it is necessary to ask the central government to
control these issues,” she said.
Expressing a wish that every tourist area in Taiwan reveal the truth to Chinese
tourists, she added: “Only by traveling to Taiwan will they be able to see the
persecution that underlies the Chinese economy.”
Falun Dafa in Taiwan welcomed the motion and called on each level of government
to take a close look at the issue.
Cheng Chi-mei (鄭其美), a representative of the movement, said it was shameful to
see Chinese officials coming to Taiwan shaking hands with Taiwanese and
receiving expensive gifts with blood on their hands.
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