Pai Ya-tsan

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.

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

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
1Wei Ming-kuDemocratic Progressive Party283,269 39.87%
2Wang Huei-mei Kuomintang377,795 53.18%
3Pai Ya-tsan Independent7,402 1.04%
4Huang Wen-ling Independent34,690 4.88%
5Hung Min-xiong (洪敏雄) Independent7,263 1.02%
Total voters　1,031,222
Valid votes　710,419
Invalid votes　
Voter turnout　68.89%

References
  1. "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. 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. "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. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-11-24. Retrieved 2019-04-11.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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