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One of the top stories from this past week involved Tsai Ing-wen, the chairwoman and presidential candidate of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who continued her six-city tour through the United States with stops in Washington DC and New York.
On Saturday, Tsai was scheduled to have a breakfast meeting with former US Ambassador to China and Assistant US Secretary of State Winston Lord, and former US acting Assistant Secretary of State Evans J. R. Revere.
During her stop in Washington, Tsai met with officials at the National Security Council, the state department, and the Pentagon. She also met with several members of congress.
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Also this past week, the Ministry of Justice denied that the execution of six death-row inmates was politically motivated.
The six executions on Friday follow recent calls for heavier punishment for serious crime in Taiwan. Those calls were prompted by the indiscriminant killing of a girl in a Taipei primary school.
Amnesty International issued a statement saying that the executions “reek of political calculations by a government attempting to gain points by quelling public anger”.
On Saturday, Deputy Justice Minister Chen Ming-tang denied the accusation. He said that whether the death penalty should be abolished remains a controversial issue in many countries. He also said there is no international treaty requiring all countries to abolish the death penalty.
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And finally, this past Thursday, President Ma Ying-jeou called on China to face up to the Tiananmen Square Massacre, which took place twenty-six years ago on June 4, 1989.
An unconfirmed number of student protesters and activists were killed in a military crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in Beijing.
In a statement released on Thursday, Ma called on China to seriously reexamine the sad chapter in its history in order to prevent similar tragedies from happening again. He also urged China to take action to rehabilitate the victims and their family members.