On the eve of the 21st anniversary of China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday urged China to learn a lesson from the incident and prevent similar occurrences.
It also urged the two sides to jointly advance the development of democracy, freedom and human rights.
“It will benefit the sustainable peace, stability and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait,” the council said in a statement issued last night.
Saying that democracy, freedom and human rights are universal values, the council said it hoped that as China improves its economy, it will also make its politics more democratic and society more open and diverse. It also hoped to see the Chinese people live a life that is happier and more dignified, adding that it hoped the Chinese government would take a look at history, learn a lesson from it and never let anything similar happen again.
The council said Taiwan’s democratization process had been shaky, but it has made great strides since 1987 when martial law was lifted.
To show his resolve to protect human rights, the statement said that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had signed two UN human rights covenants into law and promised to complete amending related measures and regulations by next year to conform to the two conventions.
MAC Chairperson Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said in the statement that as China becomes an economic powerhouse, the world hopes to see China reform its civil society and create an environment that will let its people live a happier and more dignified life.
“The key to the harmonic development of the mainland society and sustainable peace and prosperity on both sides of the Taiwan Strait is to re-examine the cause of the incident, its course and outcome,” she said.
‘OBNOXIOUS MAN’: The KMT’s Chen Ching-hui moved into Chung Chia-pin’s path atop the podium and reached for him before he grabbed at her legs with both hands Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) yesterday said he slipped and lost his balance, and did not know who was around him, after jumping onto the speaker’s podium at the legislature in Taipei. He apologized after a collision with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽), who moved to intercept him as he mounted the podium. There was pushing and shoving when the session started in the morning as KMT lawmakers attempted to block access to the podium to shield Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) so he could preside over the session. Video footage showed Chung step on a chair and
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