00:00So Freedom House just gave its very first Beacon Award for Democracy to Taiwan.
00:05What does it mean that Freedom House is not only recognizing Taiwan's government, but also Taiwan's civil society with this honor?
00:12I think for Freedom House, they value the Taiwanese democracy and they want to emphasize that
00:23Taiwanese people are trying to sustain their own democracy even though we are living under a military threat from the biggest authoritarian countries in the world.
00:35For Freedom House, they are also recognizing that Taiwanese civil society is an indepensable political force in Taiwan's democracy.
00:46And it sometimes works with the Taiwanese government. Sometimes it works independently from the Taiwanese government.
00:56And that is the very reason why we can keep our democracy vibrant in the current time.
01:02So you were the representative of civil society accepting that award on Tuesday night.
01:08What was it like for you to represent not only your organization, the Economic Democracy Union,
01:14but also the rest of Taiwan's civil society?
01:17For Taiwanese people, we pursue democracy over a century.
01:21And we pursue democracy and we form our own national security.
01:30And we practice democracy in our own land through elections, through social movements.
01:39For Taiwanese people, I think civil society is a key force for us to nurture the capable political party and to hold our political systems and politicians accountable.
01:55And this is one of the reasons why Taiwan's democracy can remain vibrant.
02:02Because there is always a political force called Taiwan civil society.
02:09And it continues to play a role in this system.
02:17In naming Taiwan in this honor, Freedom House acknowledged that Taiwan faces threats to its democracy, especially from China.
02:25Could you talk a bit more about the threats that Taiwan's democracy faces both internally and externally?
02:31Our democracy is very young.
02:33Our democracy is very young.
02:34And it has been only three decades since the end of the martial rule.
02:45So for Taiwanese people, we are still trying to consolidate the democratic systems into our daily life.
02:58But somehow it will become vulnerable towards the Chinese infiltration.
03:04For example, the Chinese sharp power, they will undermine our media environment.
03:12And Chinese government, they feed the disinformation campaign to our democracy.
03:20We are also facing a lot of great zone tactics from China.
03:25For example, recently there are lots of submarine cables were cut off by some suspicious entities with the connection with CCP regime.
03:38But for Taiwan compared to China, which is the biggest esoteric regime in the world now.
03:45So it will be very challenging for Taiwan to defend ourselves without other assistance from the democratic alliance.
03:58However, we have to show our steadfast determination to defend ourselves.
04:07Only with this determination, we can convince our friends from the international community to work with us.
04:17We have to show their families that have been abandoned.
04:18We have to show our leaders in the world now.
04:20But if you have a chance to learn more about the opportunities,
04:22be sure of their future for humans.
04:24And we will try to make you from the other countries.
04:26We'll be together with the same identities.
04:27We have to make a lot ofήσions in our lives.
04:28We are almost all the most owners and the same identities.
04:29We only have to make some changes.
04:30We have to make your friends with people,
04:33we are completely different and we have to make sure that you're not too much.
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