Shih Ming-teh, a lifelong campaigner for democracy in Taiwan who spent over two decades in prison for his cause and later started a protest movement against a president from his former party, died on Jan. 15, his 83rd birthday, in Taipei, the island’s capital.
The cause was complications of an operation to remove a liver tumor, said his wife, Chia-chiun Chen Shih.
Mr. Shih helped lead a pro-democracy protest in 1979 that was brutally broken up by the police and that is now viewed as a turning point in Taiwan’s journey from authoritarianism to democracy.
“I was imprisoned for 25 years, and I faced the possibility of the death penalty twice, but each time I came out, I instantly plunged back into the whole effort to overthrow the Chiang family dictatorship,” Mr. Shih said in an interview with The New York Times in 2022.
“I’m someone who never had a youth.”
Persons:
Shih Ming, Chia, Chen Shih, Shih, Chiang Kai, shek, Chiang Ching, Chiang, ” Mr, “, ”
Organizations:
The New York Times
Locations:
Taiwan, Taipei, China