Taiwan’s Death-Penalty Debate Could Influence Asia
The ongoing debate in Taiwan about capital punishment could influence China and its other East Asian neighbors, according to a report from human-rights organization Dui Hua Foundation. Although more than 70% of Taiwanese support capital punishment, debate about it came to the fore this year when president Ma Ying-jeou apologized in January for the wrongful execution of a soldier for the murder of a child in 1996. The government also executed five prisoners without notifying their families in March.
The executions attracted condemnation from the European Union and advocacy groups, and marked the second time Taiwan executed convicts following an informal four-year moratorium. Starting in 2006 under President Chen Shui-bian’s administration, the informal ban was continued by president Ma Ying-jeou’s minister of justice, Wang Ching-feng, an outspoken opponent of the capital punishment. Ms. Wang became the center of a media firestorm when she said she would rather “go to hell” than authorize the executions. Since her resignation in March last year, Taiwan has renewed its use of capital punishment, executing 10 prisoners.
Dui Hua argues that the high profile of the apology and the condemnations stirred by the executions could influence policies in neighboring China, Japan and South Korea: “Besides some widely criticized executions in China, none in recent times in that part of the world have been condemned as much as those in Taiwan, where the current political environment holds little promise of the 40 who remain on its death row. At least the contested political process in Taiwan is likely to ensure that a healthy public debate continues, a debate that will influence the fate of capital punishment there and in Asia more broadly,” the report said.