Statement of Wikimedia Taiwan to the Foundation and the global Wikimedia Movement communities - Wikimedia-l

18 Jun 2019


      Hi all,
Regarding to the recent Hong Kong Extradition Bill, Wikimedia Taiwan has
issued the following statement, please have a read.
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Wikimedia Taiwan requests the attention of Wikimedia Foundation and global
communities of Wikimedia movement to the Hong Kong Extradition Bill related
issues and to draft out related policy accordingly.
To our knowledge, the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
recently has made a legal amendment about extradition to Taiwan, China,
Macau, etc. Nevertheless, the draft of the amendment creates distrust from
local residents and international stakeholders. After the major scale of
protest, Hong Kong SAR Government announced the bill will be suspended for
the moment.
Wikimedia Taiwan has no comment regarding the internal affairs of Hong
Kong. However, Hong Kong is a common transit location for the Wikimedia
community members from Taiwan to attend international events. In 2015, the
staffs of an independent bookstore in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, were
disappeared. That incident and the intent of the current amendment cause us
as a Wikimedia chapter is worrying about the safety risk while traveling
abroad.
Therefore, we have three requests:
1. To Wikimedia Foundation’s legal and safety department, please stay
   tuned regarding this incident, and co-op with Hong Kong User Group and
   Wikimedia Taiwan to provide possible support on legal and strategic issues
   in order to ease the risk concern for the Wikimedia volunteers who
   contribute in the region.
   2. Even though the legal concern is relieved temporarily, we still would
   like to ask for any Wikimedia organizations hosting an international event
   while making the travel arrangements to avoid arranging the Taiwanese
   participants to travel by airlines owned by China or Hong Kong, nor making
   the transit at Hong Kong or any other airports within China.
   3. The ongoing discussion about Wikimedia movement strategy should
   include evaluation about the possible influence of illiberal democratic
   regime’s threat to free knowledge. These regimes may bring damage such as
   legal intimidation, violent threat, and monopoly of ideology. From the
   recent experience of Chinese Wikipedia, we cannot anticipate openness and
   inclusion could passively defend from these kinds of sabotage. Instead, it
   needs a more powerful strategy and action to respond on.
- This statement is open for all Wikimedia volunteers from Taiwan to
   cosign as individual or communities in the following link:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Taiwan/Declaration/The_statement_o...
This statement is also announced on our Facebook fan page:
https://www.facebook.com/wikimedia.tw/photos/a.593864927316487/2171318986237...
On behave of Wikimedia Taiwan
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Regards,
Ted Chien
Member of Supervisory Board, Wikimedia Taiwan
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Think Different, Do Smarter, Work for Joy!
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About Me: http://about.me/htchien