Shih Ming-teh

Shih Ming-teh (15 January 1941 – 15 January 2024), commonly known as Nori Shih, was a Taiwanese statesman and human rights defender.

He was once a political prisoner for 25-and-a-half years.

In February 1947, Shih Ming-teh witnessed at Kaohsiung Station that would later be known as the February 28 Incident.

The student leaders of schools were charged as instigators and some were executed as riots broke out.

Students seized weapons from the Harbor Garrison and exchanged fire with the guards.

Shih entered Kaohsiung's Chung-Cheng Senior High in 1957.

In 1959, after failing to pass his college entrance exam, he signed up with the ROC Army, passing the admission exams for the artillery school.

On occasion he vowed in public to overthrow the ROC government by force, through an armed coup d'état as an army officer.

That same year, his girlfriend gave birth to a daughter when he was 19.

Shih briefly served as an artillery officer in Kinmen.

Arrested at the age of 21 in 1962 and charged with creating the "Taiwan Independence League" (a study group) with the intention of overthrowing the Kuomintang government, Shih was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 1962 Shih was arrested for alleged involvement in the "Formosa Independence Movement"; over 30 more accomplices, mostly army school and university students, were also arrested.

Shih's two brothers, poet and painter Shih Ming-cheng and medical school student Shih Ming-hsiung were among them.

In 1964 Shih was sentenced to life imprisonment for orchestrating the independence movement.

He was also stripped of his civil rights for life.

Shih was roughed up and suffered the loss of his teeth and spinal damage at the age of 22.

The Kuomintang regime considered outspoken Shih as a highly dangerous political criminal and therefore prevented him from doing any forced labor that would put him in contact with the world outside prison.

This gave him time to do research and study.

Shih focused on philosophy, history, international law, linguistics and Japanese.

He also developed a strong and resolute personality in prison.

In the 1970s, Taiwan's government suffered several blows to its international status.

First, its seat at the United Nations was taken over by the People's Republic of China, then the United States established official ties with Beijing, severing those with Taipei.

The sentence was commuted to 15 years in 1975, and Shih was released on 16 June 1977.

Shih promptly joined the Tangwai (literally meaning "outside the party", because the Kuomintang was the only legally existing political party in Taiwan at that time), became a reporter for the Liberty Times and married the American researcher Linda Gail Arrigo.

After he played a part in organizing the 10 December 1979 pro-democracy rally subsequently known as the Kaohsiung Incident (also known as the Formosa Incident or Meilitao Incident), an arrest warrant was issued charging Shih with treason, and following 26 days on the run he was again arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

In 1984, while he was incarcerated, Polish politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Wałęsa nominated him for the Peace Prize.

In July 1987, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and offered an amnesty to Shih, but he refused to accept.

On 20 May 1990 he was finally released.

In total, he spent 25 years in prison, 13 years in solitary confinement and over 4 years on hunger strike.

In 1993, he was elected leader of the legalized opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

He was also elected legislator on three occasions.

Shih's proposal was for a political "Grand Reconciliation" in Taiwan.

He resigned from the Democratic Progressive Party on 14 November 2000.

In 2006, Shih carried out a huge protest, known as Million Voices Against Corruption, President Chen Must Go, in an effort to force the embattled president Chen Shui-bian to resign.

On 5 December 2006, he left Taipei Railway Station pledging to continue the protest alone in "self-reclusion" at an apartment nearby.

This protest ended April 2007.

Shih was one of the most prominent personalities of the Tangwai movement and greatly contributed to Taiwan's democratization.

He has been referred to by some as "Taiwan's Mandela".

Shih Ming-teh's father Shih Kuo-tsui was a well-known practitioner of Chinese medicine.

He led a round-the-clock sit-in in front of the Presidential Building and Taipei Railway Station in Taipei City, pledging to remain there until such time as President Chen resigned, or he reached the end of his term in March 2008.