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FEATURE: Taiwan must
push democracy, activists say
PRICKLY: Issues such as the release of jailed
Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo ‘deserve a place at the table’ in the
cross-strait negotiations, activist Wang Dan says
By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff Reporter
While Taiwan is considered to play an important role in helping boost democracy
in China, it doesn’t work out when the government is dormant in this regard,
activists and academics say.
Wang Dan (王丹), a student leader in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and now
a visiting professor at National Tsing Hua University, has publicly called for
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to take part in a vigil for the Tiananmen Square
Massacre victims tonight, despite not holding out much hope that the president
will make an appearance.
Wang said there has been a clear difference in Ma’s attitude toward the
Tiananmen Square Massacre before and after he was inaugurated as president in
2008.
“I can’t fathom why,” Wang said. “President Ma should have been an advocate for
democracy instead of being evasive on the issue. He needs to understand that
there is a certain degree of conflict between the rulers and the people in
China. When he gets too close to the rulers, he keeps himself at a distance from
the people.”
Wang said he understood that Ma’s hesitation lies with concerns about possible
disputes over his plan to advance cross-strait relations. Wang said he did not
share that opinion.
“I don’t consider the worry necessary. First of all, from the viewpoint of
Taiwan, economic concerns should not overrule a sense of morality. There are
many other values that are cherished by Taiwan and they are not less important
than economic concerns,” he said.
“Secondly, outwardly China talks about democracy and human rights too. How could
it be that cross-strait relationships would suffer a reversal just because
Taiwan brings up these issues with China? It won’t happen,” he said.
Like many pro-democracy activists, Wang said he wished Ma would strengthen his
support for advocating democracy in China.
Issues such as the release of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波)
and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) “deserve a place at the table” in the
cross-strait negotiation mechanism or the routinely held meeting between the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Wang
said.
Wang also urged the Ma administration to push through legislation on political
asylum. Many pro-democracy dissidents have made their way to Taiwan from China
via illegal means, but they have not been granted residency rights or permanent
resident status.
The lack of a law on asylum seekers has been used by the government as an
excuse, but that seems unconvincing and even misguided to human rights
activists.
There are currently eight Chinese democracy activists in Taiwan, each with a
monthly stipend of NT$20,000 handed to them by the National Immigration Agency.
Among them, Chen Rongli (陳榮利), who spent eight years in prison for attempting to
form the China Democracy Party in Jiangsu Province, was the first to flee to
Taiwan to escape police harassment and stints of forced re-education after his
release from jail in 2003.
Since arriving in January 2004, he has been in limbo.
The activists have been exempted from criminal penalties for illegal entry, but
they are denied the right to citizenship and are therefore unable to find jobs,
they are not covered by the national health insurance system and they are
subject to strict regulations if they want to enroll at a school.
“It’s a general perception that we do not think Ma cares that much about the
democratization of China,” Chen said. “He makes statements on June 4 every year,
but that’s not enough. We hoped that he could turn that talk into action.”
Chen said he “has given up hope” that Taiwan will pass a law on asylum seekers
as the government lacks the sincerity to push it through and the public does not
care about the issue.
“What we want most is the right to work. We can paddle our own canoe, as we are
all in the prime of life, we don’t need to rely on the stipend [as a source of
income],” he said.
Chen shares the same view as Wang that pushing for democracy in China should not
take a back seat to other cross-strait matters.
“A democratic China that has a better human rights record will better secure
cross-strait peace. If China remains an authoritarian state, Taiwan faces an
uncertain future, even though it now has a good relationship with the CCP,” he
said.
It’s not that the government could only provide asylum by passing a political
asylum law, as there are rules governing asylum seekers from China in the Act
Governing Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area
(台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), said Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元), an assistant professor at Chung
Hua University.
The Ma government’s refusal to address the plight of refugees reflects its
mindset to narrowly interpret the rules governing entry of Chinese dissidents
into the country for fear that contact with them would anger Beijing, he said.
Tseng said it took more than a month for him to get an entry permit approved
last year for Feng Tsung-te (封從德), a student leader at the Tiananmen Square
protests, as the document was bounced back and forth between the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and the National Immigration Agency.
“As long as these systematic obstacles remain unaddressed, they serve as a
deterrent to Chinese dissidents coming to Taiwan [for visits or seeking
asylum],” Tseng said.
Ma came to power with a mandate to improve relations with China, with the slogan
“driving China to change” being conferred as a relaxation on bans on
cross-strait exchanges in non-political fields, such as the economy, tourism,
education and culture.
Ruan Ming (阮銘), a former Chinese academic who previously served as a secretary
to late CCP chairman Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦), disagreed with that argument.
“How is it possible for Taiwan to sensitize Chinese students and tourists to
values of democracy, human rights and freedom of speech when it has been going
backward in these regards on the one hand and throwing high-profile receptions
for Chinese officials known to have violated human rights on the other,” Ruan
said.
Only when Taiwan makes progress in democracy, adopts a critical position against
China, urges it to improve its human rights record and welcomes pro-democracy
activists instead of Chinese provincial governors can it have a positive impact
on Chinese students and tourists, he said.
“For example, criticism of the inhumane working conditions at the [Foxconn]
factories owned by Terry Guo (郭台銘) should be an issue highlighted in the media,”
Ruan said. “The way Guo operates his businesses in China helps the Chinese
authorities oppress farmers and workers. To speed up iPad production, workers
are treated like machines.”
In recent years, civic groups led by the Cross-Strait Agreement Watch Alliance
have demanded the inclusion of articles regarding labor rights and environmental
protection in the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA)
and during negotiations such as the proposed investment protection agreement,
but to no avail.
“It’s no surprise, given that the participants in the negotiations speak up
mainly for interests of conglomerates, with concerns sometimes extended to small
and medium-size businesses. Accordingly, businesses hold more sway in politics,
and democracy and liberty don’t carry much weight,” Ruan said.
Lin Wen-cheng (林文程), a professor at the Institute of Mainland China Studies at
National Sun Yat-sen University, said that the Ma administration had provided
less support for the Chinese pro-democracy movement when compared with the
former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government in terms of concern voiced
on human rights abuses and the amount of money offered to overseas Chinese
pro-democracy organizations.
A former executive director of the government-affiliated Taiwan Foundation for
Democracy (TFD), Lin said the foundation used to be a pioneer in attacking China
record on human rights, but it has turned its attention away from the issue.
“The ostensible reason was to focus on countries other than China, but actually
it is following the guidelines on which the Ma administration’s cross-strait
policies are based, which is not to provoke China on these types of issues,” Lin
said.
During the previous DPP administration, the TFD hosted several conferences in
various cities, such as Tokyo, Berlin and Brussels, which were attended by
Chinese pro-democracy activists in exile in other countries and foreign
supporters of the democratic movement in China.
Conferences like those have not been hosted in recent years and the amount of
money donated to overseas Chinese pro-democracy groups has decreased
significantly, Lin said.
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