Alhambra Mayor Protests Publisher’s Arrest

Mayor Michael A. Blanco says he will boycott an October trip to Alhambra’s sister city in Taiwan unless that country’s government releases the jailed publisher of a Monterey Park-based newspaper by noon on Friday.

Lee Ya-ping was arrested in Taiwan Sept. 17 for publishing articles supporting the reunification of mainland China and Taiwan. The publisher of the Chinese-language International Daily News was arrested under provisions of Taiwan’s anti-sedition act during one of her frequent and prolonged visits to that country. If convicted, she could be sentenced to death.

“If they (Taiwanese officials) are trying to monitor our newspapers in the United States, I think this is a very serious matter, and I am opposed to it,” Blanco said at the City Council meeting this week.

Blanco is one of 16 Alhambra community leaders scheduled to leave Oct. 7 for a weeklong visit to Hsin Chuang, Alhambra’s sister city. So far he is the only member of the delegation to back out of the trip in protest of Lee’s arrest.

Councilwoman Mary Louise Bunker, the only other council member scheduled to make the trip, said she wants to know more about the arrest before she decides whether to go. As a member of a governing body, “it is important that I consider the appropriateness of the trip,” she said.

The four members of the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce scheduled to make the trip have decided to proceed, said Chamber President Bob Kane.

“The board was unanimous as far as keeping politics out of our sister city relationship,” Kane said. “The feeling is that this is a cultural and educational exchange.”

The other members of the delegation include one city planning commissioner, representatives of the Asian-American Friendship Association, an aide to Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon (D-Alhambra), and several spouses. Participants will pay their own transportation costs. The host city will provide lodging and food.

Rep. Matthew Martinez (D-Monterey Park), originally listed as a member of the delegation, said he never intended to make the trip because of commitments on Capitol Hill. However, Martinez said that if he had planned to go, he would have changed his mind because of Lee’s arrest.

Simon Chen, Lee’s son and general manager of the paper, has called the Taiwan government’s allegation “unfair” and “ridiculous.”

He said he believes that the Nationalist Party government is using his mother as a hostage to force a change in the newspaper’s editorial policy. However, the paper will not bend, Chen said.

The International Daily News is “an American newspaper,” said Anthony Yuen, the publication’s chief editor. “The only difference is we publish in Chinese. That’s all. In our reports we try very hard to make a balance.”

Chen and Yuen said that they believe Lee’s arrest was also intended as a warning to other Taiwanese citizens living in the United States that they are not protected by the First Amendment when they are in Taiwan.

Lee, 62, has lived in the United States for more than 15 years but has retained her Taiwanese citizenship. Her husband and five children are all U.S. citizens.

In earlier reports, Chen said that last month his mother had unsuccessfully sought the nomination of Taiwan’s ruling Nationalist Party, of which she is a member, to run for Kaohsiung County magistrate in November elections. Had she won the nomination and the election, he said, she would have given up her immigrant status in the United States and moved back to Taiwan.

“It’s coming very, very close to home,” said Blanco, citing the 1984 assassination of Chinese-American journalist Henry Liu in Daly City. The 51-year-old Liu, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was the author of a book critical of Taiwan’s President Chiang Ching-kuo.

“We have to take a stand to let them know that we want people in the U.S. to be able to exercise their right to free speech and free press without fear that some foreign government will interfere or threaten or harass either themselves or their family members,” Blanco said.

“If this kind of thing continues, we may have to look at the sister-city program again,” Blanco said.

Blanco announced his proposed boycott instead of reading a proclamation declaring Oct. 7-13 Hsin Chuang Sister City Week. The sister-city program between Alhambra and Hsin Chuang was established in 1984. The cities began the relationship because of the growing Asian population in Alhambra, their similar size and the fact that both are suburbs of large cities.

“The people at the local level (in Taiwan) are just really nice people,” Blanco said. “I don’t blame them in anyway for what the national government is doing.”

Two other council members, Parker Williams and Talmage Burke, said they were surprised by Blanco’s statement.

Williams, who said he had not heard of Lee’s arrest, said that the mayor does not represent his views on the matter. “I respect his opinion, but I don’t think that the sister city program is a forum for making political statements.” Burke said he had no further comment on the statement.

Blanco said he had sent mailgrams to Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and Martinez asking for their support in pushing for Lee’s release.

Martinez said he signed a House resolution introduced Tuesday “imploring the Taiwan government to release (Lee) right away.” He has also contacted officials of the Coordinating Council for North American Affairs, Taiwan’s quasi-official diplomatic mission in the United States, to express his concern, Martinez said.

Cranston introduced a similar resolution in the Senate condemning Taiwan’s action and demanding Lee’s “immediate and unconditional” release.

“The action by the Taiwan government is a slap in the face to the laws of the U.S. and another black mark on that government’s already tarnished human rights record,” Cranston said in a press release.

In a related development, Monterey Park Councilman Monty Manibog said he sent letters dated Sept. 23 to Taiwan’s President Chiang and Prime Minister Yu Kuo-hwa, expressing his outrage at Lee’s arrest.