Pai Ya-tsan

Pai Ya-tsan
白雅燦
Born (1945-01-08) 8 January 1945 (age 80)
NationalityTaiwanese
Alma materNational Chengchi University

Pai Ya-tsan (Chinese: 白雅燦; pinyin: Bái Yǎcàn; born 8 January 1945) is a Taiwanese political activist. During his imprisonment, Amnesty International designated Pai a prisoner of conscience.

Raised in Changhua County, Pai studied law at National Chengchi University.[1] His political involvement began in 1969, campaigning for Huang Hsin-chieh, who won election to the Legislative Yuan.[1] Suspected of sedition, Pai was jailed for four months in 1971, then released.[1][2] In 1973, he supported a number of tangwai candidates for Taipei City Council.[1] Pai chose to contest the legislative election of 1975, but was arrested in October for distributing campaign fliers which contained 29 questions addressed to Chiang Ching-kuo, as well as political policies suggested by Pai.[2][3] The next month, he went to trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment by a military court.[4] While imprisoned he went on hunger strikes to protest foreign policies and political repression.[5][6] In February 1986, legislators Chiang Peng-chien and Fang Su-min petitioned for Pai's release.[7] Instead, Pai's prison sentence was commuted to fifteen years upon the lifting of martial law in July 1987.[8] Throughout the year, Pai's health continued to decline,[8] and he was released in April 1988.[9]

In November 2018, Pai contested the Changhua County magistracy as an independent candidate.[10]

2018 Changhua County magistrate election results[11]
No. Candidate Party Votes Percentage
1 Wei Ming-ku Democratic Progressive Party 283,269 39.87%
2 Wang Huei-mei Kuomintang 377,795 53.18%
3 Pai Ya-tsan Independent 7,402 1.04%
4 Huang Wen-ling Independent 34,690 4.88%
5 Hung Min-xiong (洪敏雄) Independent 7,263 1.02%
Total voters 　1,031,222
Valid votes 　710,419
Invalid votes 　
Voter turnout 　68.89%

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Pai Ya-ts'an: profile of a political prisoner" (PDF). Taiwan Communiqué (22): 16–18. October 1985. ISSN 1027-3999. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  2. ^ a b Han Cheung (20 October 2019). "Taiwan in Time: White Terror in late October". Taipei Times. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  3. ^ "AI urges Taiwan government to release election candidate" (PDF). Amnesty International. February 1976. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  4. ^ "Pai Ya-tsan, Republic of China (Taiwan)" (PDF). Amnesty International. August 1985. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  5. ^ "Pai Ya-tsan on hunger strike" (PDF). Taiwan Communiqué (17): 20. November 1984. ISSN 1027-3999. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  6. ^ "Imprisoned Taiwanese opposition leaders on hunger strike" (PDF). Taiwan Communiqué (20): 1. June 1985. ISSN 1027-3999. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  7. ^ "Prison Report: Two political prisoners on hunger strike again" (PDF). Taiwan Communiqué (25): 15. May 1986. ISSN 1027-3999. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  8. ^ a b "Prison report: Pai Ya-ts'an's health deteriorating" (PDF). Taiwan Communiqué (33): 16. February 1988. ISSN 1027-3999. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  9. ^ "Why They Were Arrested and Imprisoned" (PDF). Taiwan Communiqué (34): 19. May 1988. ISSN 1027-3999. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  10. ^ "臺灣省彰化縣第十八屆縣長選舉選舉公 報" (PDF) (in Chinese). Central Election Commission. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  11. ^ "2018 Local Elections". Archived from the original on 2018-11-24. Retrieved 2019-04-11.