FEATURE : I’d rather be beaten than stay in Taiwan: defector

Politics Taiwan Politics
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Although I am not a defector but I agree with them, Taiwan lousy government and unfair laws…

STRONG CRITICISMStuck in limbo as Taipei has yet to review an asylum bill, five Chinese dissidents have also failed to get help from the UN or a third country
DPA , TAIPEI

A year ago, Chinese dissident Cai Lujun (蔡陸軍) jumped off a fishing boat to seek asylum in Taiwan, looking forward to a warm welcome and a new life.

But what greeted Cai was four months’ detention followed by an endless wait for asylum with no legal residence and a meager living subsidy.

Unable to work in Taiwan or seek asylum in a third country, Cai now regrets having defected to Taiwan.

“Had I known the outcome, even if I was to be beaten to death in China, I would never have come here,” he said recently.

Cai, 40, is one of the five Chinese pro-democracy activists who have arrived in the past four years seeking asylum.

During the Cold War, Chinese defectors were welcomed by Taiwan as “freedom fighters” with cash rewards.

Against the backdrop of warming relations between Taipei and Beijing, the recent arrivals have put Taiwan in an awkward position.

Adding to the complications is the fact that Taiwan has no asylum law and accepts Chinese defectors on a case-by-case basis, preferring to send them to a third country to avoid annoying China.

But no other country has offered to accept the five, as none wants to offend Beijing by accepting Chinese dissidents. Cai’s visits to the US and Canadian representative offices to seek asylum were fruitless.

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has drafted an asylum bill, but it is still pending review by the legislature.

In limbo, a frustrated Cai said he asked MAC officials: “Do you regard me as a human being? If you regard me as a human being, why do you deny me basic human rights? Why don’t you grant me permanent residence?”

“Taiwanese are nice and kind, but the Taiwanese government is the lousiest government in the world,” he said.

Two international agencies — the UN High Commission for Refugees and Amnesty International — have refused to take up the five men’s cases.

Cai and Wu Yalin (吳亞林), 49, who defected to Taiwan in December after serving nine years in prison for criticizing the Communist Party, each receive NT$10,000 per month, which is barely enough to pay rent.

The other three dissidents — Chen Rongli (陳榮利), Yan Peng (燕鵬) and Yan Jun (顏軍) — each receive NT$20,000 per month because of different regulations at the time the stipend was granted.

The five have to renew their temporary residence permits every three to five months, also because of different rules at the time of their arrival in Taiwan.

“Without an ID card, we cannot look for work, go to school or even apply for a cellphone subscription,” said Wu, who worked as a mechanic.

The long wait for asylum in Taiwan and the difficulty in making a living is driving the Chinese defectors to desperate measures.

Cai, Wu and Chen Rongli said they would sue the government for violating their human rights by denying them legal residence.

“If this government does not care about losing face, why should I give face to it?” Cai said.

MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said the council had urged the legislature to pass the asylum law as soon as possible and asked the five Chinese dissidents to be patient. The legislature is expected to review the draft bill in this session.

Professor Peng Huai-chen (彭懷真) from Tunghai University expressed sympathy for the defectors.

“The importance of Chinese defectors to Taiwan has decreased because of the change of ties between Taiwan and China, but for a democratic country, human rights should come first,” he said.

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If Taiwan is so horrible, why are you so obsessed with it? Why don’t you just, like, move on, dude? :ponder:

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Who is this guy anyway? Some dumb fisherman who can’t or hasn’t read a newspaper in the last 15 years? Jump off your boat in a foreign country and expect that government to support you the rest of your life? Where do you think you are, Canada?

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It pays better than being a single mom! There’s a subsidy for low earning single parents of NT$5,000 per month. That amount is enough to keep two of my friends married because the non-working father would sue for custody over that stipend! $10,000 a month just for jumping off a boat? Wow.

I’m sure life was rotten in Chinese prison, but there’s a lot more wrong with this picture than bad Taiwanese government.

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read for yourself, this man is no fisherman. He is one of the well known cyber-dissidents in China

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cai_Lujun

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Dissident fed up with Taiwan
HOMESICK? Cai Lujun, who spent three years in a Chinese jail for criticizing Beijing, said that he was tired of being a ‘half ghost’ in Taiwan and wanted to go home
DPA , TAIPEI

A Chinese dissident, angry that Taiwan has not granted him permanent asylum, yesterday asked the government to send him back to China.

Cai Lujun (蔡陸軍), 40, said he made the request because he could no longer endure the “endless wait” for asylum and the humiliation of living like a “half ghost, half human being.”

He said he is not afraid of imprisonment in China for defecting to Taiwan, because it would be better being jailed in China than begging for food and waiting indefinitely for asylum in Taiwan.

In a statement entitled “The Taiwan and US Governments, Please Remember: I am a Human Being!” Cai also blasted the US for rejecting his asylum application, calling it a coward before China.

Cai applied for asylum in the US with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on Sept. 11.

The AIT turned him down on the grounds that Taiwan has a well-established mechanism to protect asylum seekers.

Cai, a former businessman in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, was jailed for three years in 2003 for criticizing China’s government on the Internet.

On July 26 last year he fled to Taiwan on a Taiwan fishing boat to seek asylum.

Cai was kept in a detention center for illegal Chinese job seekers for three months and was released in December, after Taipei confirmed that he was a bona fide defector.

Then began the long wait to be granted asylum.

The Mainland Affairs Council promised to grant asylum to Cai and four other Chinese pro-democracy activists — some of whom have been in Taiwan for four years — or find a third country to accept them.

But the council said it could not grant asylum now as an asylum bill is still pending review in the legislature. Its effort to help them find asylum in a foreign country has been futile because most countries have diplomatic ties with China and do not want to offend Beijing by sheltering Chinese dissidents.

Cai lives on a NT$10,000 monthly subsidy and cannot work, receive public healthcare or apply for a cellphone because he does not have permanent residence.

After holding several news conferences and a half-day hunger strike in front of the Presidential Office, Cai said he had lost faith in the Taiwanese government and wanted to go home, even if he faces jail in China.

“After one year’s painful experience in Taiwan, I now want to return to China. China is a scoundrel and it admits it is a scoundrel. Taiwan is more shameless than China because it claims to be a nation of freedom and democracy but does not respect human rights,” he said by telephone.

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[quote=“housecat”] the non-working father would sue for custody over that stipend [and win]
[/quote]

And here’s the most disgusting aspect of Taiwanese society…

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That’s right: You’re not a defector.

If you want to make points about how defectors should be treated, you might stand a better chance of succeeding if you keep in mind that It’s not about you. :2cents:

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If UNHCR and Amnesty are not interested, then chances are he’s not legitimate. It doesn’t take much to get either of them involved but they will check details and won’t take fraudulent claims.

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Cai Lujun: Why should I flee mainland China? Author: Cai Lujun

China, my hometown, here are my relatives, here are my school days, where I lived 38 years altogether, where I dreamed of paradise, but I eventually had to leave in tears!

For my faith
I first cast doubt on the Chinese Communists during high school. Learning about modern history, I believed the Chinese Communist Party sells itself to the enemy, holding hands with the nation that occupied over two million square kilometers of Chinese land, killings numerous people, the Soviet Union. I questioned the idea of the armed revolution, but then, after all, I was still a teenager, but this period of history I was not impressed.

With the occurrence of 4 June 1989 bloody massacre I was completely disappointed with the dictatorship of the CCP, those who expect them to the benefit the people, is simply an idiot’s dream! I resigned after a difficult choice, to find a way out.
After the expansion of access to information, I gradually realized that China’s fundamental problem is the party’s authoritarian system.

During the period of growth in thoughts,I read a large number of constitutional democracy, books, and gradually set up my own view of the world.

I’ve witnessed Communist China’s brutal suppression of the China Democracy Party and the Falun Gong, I have a better understanding of the CCP’s despicable and cruel nature. With the development and rise of the Internet in mainland China, I published some of my views on current affairs on the internet.

As a person, we deserve the to right to live and human dignity, and the PRC is trample on such rights everywhere. I put my writing as a fight for right of living and for human dignity, used the pen as a knife, attacked the Chinese Communist one-party dictatorship.

After New Year’s Day in 2003, I saw a female college student suffered arrest for writing satire Politics news, after some thought, I could not resist to use my real name to post articles on the internet called "to be deterrent scared to death? Or the courage to stand up? “” What is the purpose of a democratic forum? " as well as other texts.
On February 21, 2003 I was arrested by the Chinese Communists in the name of incitement to overthrow the regime and sentenced to three years imprisonment.
In my opinion, regardless of how heinous the Communist China is, every man deserves the right to stand up and fight for human dignity, otherwise, what is the meaning of life?

For my parents
While I was in jail, my elderly parents, visited almost every week, although did not see a face and just left a few lines of text. My mother said to me: “As a Chinese, I understand you, as a mother, I am hurt about you!” As somebody’s son, I was moved, but I also felt uneasy. After my release, I saw my parents obviously looked a lot older, and every time they looked at me, I always felt hesitated and made my look ashamed. In desperation, after released from prison less than a month I went to Shanghai, hoping to escape.
When I write something again, I received the father’s phone call “You have your own faith and belief, I have no objection, but you have to consider whether your mother is able to withstand you in jail again!” I have no nothing to say.
As my constitutional rights, fighting for human dignity of what a man eligible to, I think that my actions can be justified, but for my fragile parents, to live in fear all day, it what I cannot face.

For my friends
Mr. Li Linong (prisoners of conscience, dissident, West Mr Kwok) is the person I met in the network which I admire his profound knowledge, his impassioned fighting spirit, so I learned a lot from him. But his long-term overdraft life on the internet, his untimely death. Due to the system of the Communist dictatorship, he did not see the publication of his own works online, even after he died, despite the various efforts of the friends were unable to publish is works.
Return power to the people to end corruption; return soldiers to the country to end absolute power; return rich to the city in order to restore business activity; return truth to history.
Mr. Li Linong four sentences, brilliantly derived the fundamental problems of mainland China!
There is no better way commemorate Mr. Li than to make his ideas spread, complete the unfulfilled aspirations of Mr. Li and gather his online articles “West Mr Kwok writings” can be be published so that more people can see his profound words and brilliant expositions.

For my own
After my release, I repeatedly suffered police harassment, I moved my home several times to avoid this dilemma. Although the CCP’s a statement of repentance allows me to go home and plead not guilty, avoiding the threat of prison, I resolutely choose to protect my own human dignity, but I am only a ordinary man, I also have my emotions, I am also eager to avoid living in fear.

March 8, 2007, I applied for travel passport was refused by the Communist authorities, and restrictions to leave the country has no time limit. From whatever point of speaking, I do not allow them to starve me, I must protest, I have to flee their claws to find where I belong.
Taiwanese, experienced long-term struggle, and finally welcomed a constitutional democratic society, everyone truly become masters of their own, becoming the forefront group in front of all Chinese people. They are the beacon of the entire Chinese people, the direction of the entire Chinese people and the target of the entire Chinese people.
As a human being should have the rights and dignity of man, can not rely on the charity of those in power, like Taiwanese, we must work hard for our own dignity!
In the case of desperation, the situation can not be resolved, can not be avoided, for faith, for my family, for friends, for myself, I fled the Chinese mainland this piece of home and native land, headed for the world of democracy and freedom! Although this determination is difficult, but I firmly believe that my choice is right, time shall prove!
The free world, here I come! On the road of arduous hardships, even on the road of life is in danger, I am duty-bound to the barrier.

Cai Lujun
July 22, 2007

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[quote=“housecat”]It pays better than being a single mom! There’s a subsidy for low earning single parents of NT$5,000 per month. That amount is enough to keep two of my friends married because the non-working father would sue for custody over that stipend! $10,000 a month just for jumping off a boat? Wow.

I’m sure life was rotten in Chinese prison, but there’s a lot more wrong with this picture than bad Taiwanese government.[/quote]

You only get that subsidy if you earn less than 30,000 NTD or so, of course if you are working you probably need to spend money on child-care anyway.

Let’s not conflate the issues, the dissident is pissed off because he has not been given any status or working rights. Since he seems to be a genuine dissident, I do feel for him and hope the legislature can improve on the current situation which has been ongoing for many years. Many Tibetans were in a similar limbo and depended on once-off type approvals to get IDs.

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[quote=“housecat”]It pays better than being a single mom! There’s a subsidy for low earning single parents of NT$5,000 per month. That amount is enough to keep two of my friends married because the non-working father would sue for custody over that stipend! $10,000 a month just for jumping off a boat? Wow.

I’m sure life was rotten in Chinese prison, but there’s a lot more wrong with this picture than bad Taiwanese government.[/quote]

You only get that subsidy if you earn less than 30,000 NTD or so, of course if you are working you probably need to spend money on child-care anyway. They will also not give it to you if you have any assets on your hukou. As most single mothers are under their own parents hukou (yes ridiculous system :astonished: )and their parents often has some assets like a house, they cannot claim this stipend.

Let’s not conflate the issues, the dissident is pissed off because he has not been given any status or working rights. Since he seems to be a genuine dissident, I do feel for him and hope the legislature can improve on the current situation which has been ongoing for many years. Many Tibetans were in a similar limbo and depended on once-off type approvals to get IDs.

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[quote=“headhonchoII”][quote=“housecat”]It pays better than being a single mom! There’s a subsidy for low earning single parents of NT$5,000 per month. That amount is enough to keep two of my friends married because the non-working father would sue for custody over that stipend! $10,000 a month just for jumping off a boat? Wow.

I’m sure life was rotten in Chinese prison, but there’s a lot more wrong with this picture than bad Taiwanese government.[/quote]

You only get that subsidy if you earn less than 30,000 NTD or so, of course if you are working you probably need to spend money on child-care anyway. They will also not give it to you if you have any assets on your hukou. As most single mothers are under their own parents hukou (yes ridiculous system :astonished: )and their parents often has some assets like a house, they cannot claim this stipend.

Let’s not conflate the issues, the dissident is pissed off because he has not been given any status or working rights. Since he seems to be a genuine dissident, I do feel for him and hope the legislature can improve on the current situation which has been ongoing for many years. Many Tibetans were in a similar limbo and depended on once-off type approvals to get IDs.[/quote]

I know. The single parent subsidy is difficult to qualify for, but the point is that it’s a pittance. They’re giving this guy/these guys double to quadruple the amount they’d give to help support a citizen child. That was what I was trying to point out. And as you’ve made clear, it was easier for him to “qualify” for it than for the single parents here.

No doubt it’s tough to be in such a position for so long. I don’t know what the right answer might be for these guys, but criticizing the Taiwanese government in an attempt to cause action that might avoid a loss of face is not likely to get the desired result, IMO.

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Taiwan should help those who persecuted by the communist party.

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The point is they don’t want these rather paltry subsidies, they just want IDs and working rights and to be recognized as refugees, or not. Then they can build a new life here in Taiwan.
Criticizing Taiwan is out of frustration, the US and others are doing nothing for them.
The Chinese government is the real problem, they torture and can even kill opponents of the regime.

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which country shouldn’t? Phillipine should too. taiwan is not more responsible than any other country.

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Well it is since it still claims to be Republic of China and is under threat of being absorbed into the PRC.

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No, its cool. Its definitely the best way. Post your whinges on the Intarwebs and get a handful of ignorant twats to “support” your cause. Ka-CHING! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
DUUUUDE! Take a look, man! It’s right THERE! Right on the Internet! So it MUST be true!

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which country shouldn’t? Phillipine should too. taiwan is not more responsible than any other country.[/quote]

But Taiwan has done little. In fact,to help those who persecuted by the communist party is to help Taiwan.

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Militarygamer:
Der kommisar:
I think you should watch your six.
I swear to Bacchus I saw some interlopers on ye flank.
Ready for perimetre penetration, they were.
But this is none of my concern, if you care to mold your own Dien Bien Phu.
Taiwan rules, over China, in so many ways.
Get used to it…