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Stand firm on democratic ideals: Chen
Guangcheng
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng
laughs during a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters
Taiwan’s leaders appear to have a lack of
understanding of “the essence of Beijing’s authoritarian regime,” despite Taiwan
serving as a role model for democratic development in China, Chinese activist
Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠) said in Taipei yesterday.
Chen, who has been living in the US after fleeing China in May last year, told
an international press conference on the first full day of his 18-day visit to
Taiwan, that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) refusal to meet him “reflected the
fierce competition between a democracy and an authoritarian regime.”
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) also turned down the opportunity to meet
the 41-year-old dissident during his visit, which has been dubbed as a “trip for
human rights” by its main organizer, the Taiwan Association for China Human
Rights.
Visiting Taiwan for the first time, the activist said the success of Taiwan’s
democratic development has proven Beijing’s rhetoric that democracy is not
suited for the Chinese world to be a lie that “couldn’t be more wrong.”
However, Chen expected Taiwan to stand firm on its democratic system and “engage
more with China’s political leaders, but also with its rights activists because
they represent the real voice of the people.”
Accompanied by members of his family and his mentor, New York University (NYU)
law professor Jerome Cohen, Chen faced the press conference — which attracted
more than 100 reporters, and included more than 40 international media outlets —
with confidence.
He carefully handled more than 20 questions on various topics, such as his plans
after finishing his fellowship at NYU, a suspected attempt to hack into his
personal computer by Beijing and his observations on democracy in Taiwan,
without undue elaboration.
Chen refrained from criticizing Taiwanese politicians or democratic developments
in Taiwan and Hong Kong, which one reporter described as “eroding.”
“If Hong Kong fails to transplant the rule of law to China, Beijing will
eventually bring the rule of man to Hong Kong. If Taiwan does not help
democratize China, the authoritarian system of government will someday return to
intimidate Taiwan,” Chen said.
With regard to his future, Chen said he does not rule out any possibilities,
including where he would live, but said he is determined to fight the Chinese
Communist Party regime, which imprisoned him between 2006 and 2008, and
afterward placed him under house arrest.
Speaking with confidence, Chen said he would “definitely return to China” and
that he believed he had done the right thing and “struck Beijing in its
Achilles’ heel,” which is what caused it to retaliate so strongly against him.
Chen is scheduled to deliver a speech titled “Human rights as the foundation of
cross-strait peace” at the Legislative Yuan and visit Jingmei Human Rights
Memorial Park in the outskirts of Taipei today.
He is also scheduled to unveil his new book, titled China, the Book of Living
and Dying, at a press conference in Taipei tomorrow.
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