President Tsai pays respects to Liu Xiaobo

2017/07/17

President Tsai Ing-wen paid her highest respects July 13 to Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, who died aged 61 of complications from liver cancer while serving an 11-year prison sentence in mainland China.
 
 In a tweet on her official Twitter account, Tsai praised the “tireless advocate for human rights.” She also expressed her deepest condolences to Liu’s family, particularly his wife Liu Xia who is believed to be under house arrest.
 
 Citing text from Liu’s “No Enemies, No Hatred,” a collection of his essays and poems mainly from 2004-2008, Tsai said Liu firmly believed “China’s political progress will never stop” and that “China will eventually become a country of the rule of law in which human rights are supreme.”
 
Liu had no enemies because democracy has no enemies, Tsai said, adding that it is hoped the authorities in mainland China can show confidence by engaging in political reform so the people can enjoy the rights of freedom and democracy.
 
“If the Chinese dream is democracy, then Taiwan will provide any assistance necessary to achieve this objective. I believe that this is what [Liu] would have wanted.”
 
Born in 1955 in the northeastern city of Changchun, Liu was a renowned literacy critic and writer, as well as one of the most prominent human rights activists in mainland China. He also co-authored “Charter 08,” a manifesto published Dec. 10, 2008—the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, advocating the gradual shift of mainland China’s political and legal system toward democracy.
 
 Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion on Christmas Day in 2009, and a year later received the Nobel Peace Prize “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=2&post=118409)