Taiwan, China, and other things. Recovered from the defunct TypePad platform.
First Ma-o Ying-jeou came for the Tibetan Buddhists,
and no one spoke out because they weren't Tibetan Buddhists.
Then Ma-o Ying-jeou came for the Falun Gong practioners,
and no one spoke out because they weren't Falun Gong adherents.
Then Ma-o Ying-jeou's persecution suddenly stopped,
Because these things have never been known to spiral out of control.
UPDATE (Oct 21/13): The Tourist Bureau of Taiwan graciously returns Falun Gong its rights to free speech again.
How big of them.
This week's hands-down prizewinner is KMT caucus whip Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲):
“Just because [Ko-suen “Bill” Moo — a Taiwanese convicted of spying in America for the Chinese Communist Party] finished his sentence in the US and came back to Taiwan does not mean he has to be watched,” she said. “Are we a police state, an authoritarian state, or a colony of the US?”
You tell 'em, spinach. Explain to us why the KMT is entirely justified in pursuing its current catch-and-release policy. The KMT wants eventual reunification, and so do Chinese spies…more or less. So y'all just go on and let them Chinese Communist spies fly and be free and go about their business. Unwatched.
Oh, and you're absolutely correct — only a police state, an authoritarian state, or a colony of the US would heartlessly seek to deprive Mr. Moo of his inalienable right to life, liberty . . . and the pursuit of classified military technology.
(That can be used to conquer Taiwan.)
But it gets better. Because while raising the rhetorical question of whether Taiwan is a police state, Ms. Chao of the Chinese Nationalist Party kind of answers her own question. Only just not in quite the way she probably intended…
Chao [also] said the KMT caucus would demand that the Council of Labor Affairs and the National Immigration Agency (NIA) look into [J. Michael Cole's] residence certificate and work permit and declare [the foreign newspaper editor] persona non grata [for writing an opinion column critical of the KMT in the Wall Street Journal].
Remember: Taiwan is not — the KMT repeats emphatically: NOT! — a police state.
It's simply a place where it is now a deportable offense to express any opinion which has not been explicitly approved in advance by the Chinese Nationalist Party's Central Propaganda Ministry.
Kapiche?
[. . .] "Hangman, who is he,
for whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye
and he gave a riddle instead of reply.
"He who serves me best," said he
"Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down and laid his hand
on a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
at the hangman's hand, was our relief . . .
UPDATE: Irony flies thick and heavy when the KMT crudely tries to whip up anti-American sentiment ("Are we a colony of the US?"), while simultaneously accusing OTHERS of damaging the relationship between America and Taiwan.
UPDATE #2: Another irony alert. The Chinese Nationalist Party manages to keep a VERY close eye on Taiwanese farmers wishing to demonstrate in front of the Presidential Building.
But ask 'em to monitor KNOWN Chinese Communist spies, and what's their response? "No way, Jose. What do think we are, fascists?"
Taiwan's unutterably depressing slide into Third-Worldism continues unabated, as President Ma Ying-jeou employs organized crime members to act as backup security for a visiting Chinese Communist Party envoy.
Since Taiwan's gangster governor has recently instructed his cabinet to refer to Communist China as "The Mainland" from now on – in accordance with his interpretation of Taiwan's constitution — one important question needs to be asked at this juncture: Pray tell, what exactly does your constitution have to say about the executive branch of government employing mafia foot soldiers as law enforcement deputies, Mr. Ma?
(Picture for illustrative purposes only: this image of Taiwanese gang members with police is not from this particular story. From Cinapig.com)
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A: Because O.J. wasn't available that weekend.
Yeah, yeah — the story's a few months old:
Amid allegations over his relationship with a convicted double murderer and former Nantou County gang boss, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday said he would resign if the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could provide any evidence of irregularities in their relationship.
[…]
The DPP has continued to question the premier’s links to Chiang since local media on Wednesday reported Wu and his wife were caught on camera vacationing in Bali with Chiang and Lee Chao-ching.
(There he is, clean as a whistle. Taiwan's KMT Premier, Wu Den-yih. When he's not taking vacations in Bali with his double-murdering, Chinese mafia pals. Image from Daylife.com.)
And in more recent (and somewhat related news), World Uygher Congress president Rebiya Kadeer has received a second invite to visit Taiwan. Saturday's Taipei Times has the story, and recaps how Chinese Nationalist Party sycophants in Taiwan prevented her visit last year in order to curry favor with their Communist Party overlords. (And note that "sycophant" is employed here in both the modern and ancient meanings of the word.)
The government [in 2009], however, denied Kadeer entry to Taiwan on the grounds that her visit would harm the national interest.
At the time, Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said Kadeer, president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), should not be allowed into the country since she had “close relations to a terrorist group.”
So my question is: If Kadeer's entry in 2009 was deemed harmful to Taiwan's national interest because she had "close relations to a terrorist group" *, shouldn't Taiwan's second highest political office-holder be similarly blacklisted from the halls of government for his PROVEN close relations with a double murdering gangster?
"The new administration will push for clean politics and set strict standards for the integrity and efficiency of officials."
— Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou's Inaugural address. May 21, 2008
Epic fail on those "strict standards for integrity" there, Hoss.
* Unsubstantiated charges made by the Butchers of Beijing and repeated uncritically by the Toadies of Taipei.
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The ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of Taiwan has made it abundantly clear that foreign activists devoted to the cause of human rights in China are NOT WELCOME in the island nation. First, there was the sorry case of the Dalai Lama last month, who was originally told not to visit, and finally slapped with a government-issued gag order when he was grudgingly permitted to enter the country. Then to top things off, only a few weeks later the KMT placed the head of the World Uigher Congress, Rebiya Kadeer, also on their rapidly-growing blacklist.
Contrast that with the KMT's treatment of PRC zoo animals with annexation-oriented propagandistic names. Why, those are hailed and welcomed by the current Taiwanese government with open arms. Because THEY'RE not political !
Tiananmen Square demonstrators, can you take the hint? In Ma Ying-jeou's Taiwan, Orwell's dictum now applies. Four legs good, two legs bad.
On September 25th, Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party attempted to rationalize their blacklist in this way:
KMT spokesman Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) said US President Barack Obama had recently decided not to meet the Dalai Lama during his trip to the US to protect the country’s national interests. Japan had also prevented visits by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) for the same reason.
“The decision made by the government today [to bar Rebiya Kadeer] is based on national and public interests,” he said.
Gee, only three days before Confucius' birthday, and the KMT demonstrates that it has a firm handle on the ethics of eight-year olds:
"Chinaaa hit me in the hallway! But he was too BIG for me to hit back, so that's why I hit little Rebiya instead!"
Perhaps though, they were merely following the Confucian Silver Rule. For who among us is unfamiliar with the Great Sage's moral imperative:
"Do unto others, as the Chinese Communist Party would do unto you."
Or something like that. The Analects tend to lose a little in the Chinese Nationalist translation.
UPDATE: LOL. Taiwan's Mainland Affair Council (MAC) announces, "Taiwan can help accelerate democratic development in China."
Left unexplained is how this is to happen when the KMT MUZZLES Chinese democracy advocates. But I'm sure somebody smart can explain it to me.
. . . in order to please Communist China. From Taiwan's China Post:
. . . ruling Kuomintang (KMT) Deputy Secretary-General Chang Jung-kung, who handles the party's ties with China, warned [the mayor of the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung] of the risks of screening [a film about Chinese Uigher leader, Rebiya Kadeer].
He said the mayor should give top priority to the public interest of her city, and should “think carefully” if the move affects Kaohsiung's [influx of Chinese tourists].
Mr. Deputy Secretary-General, free speech IS the public interest of Kaohsiung. And Taiwan too, you miserable butt-wipe.
By Ma-llah, the Compassionate! No wonder the KMT begrudged the Dalai Lama's granting succor to typhoon survivors — why, that Tibetan outlander was stealing the limelight from their Sultan of Sympathy, their beloved Ayatollah Ying-jeou. (Holy Keeper of the Sixteen Percent Approval Rating.)
Step aside, Dalai. Taiwan's Second-Handsomest-Man is out to spread the love. Sixteen Percenters everywhere can rest assured that the mere appearance of the Ma-ssiah's golden visage will turn those typhoon showers into September flowers.
(President Ma Ying-jeou image from the China Post)
(Inquiring minds would like to know, though: Did the departed here lose their lives because of the storm, or because of SUPREME LEADER Ma Ying-jeou's criminally-inept response to it? * )
* A relative of mine called me one week after the typoon hit, and asked me why Taiwanese were still trapped up in the mountains. "Doesn't Taiwan have loads of helicopters to transport troops to the beaches in the event of a Chinese invasion? It's been a week already — why aren't they USING those?" he asked.
No answer from me. I was outside the country and internet-less. Imagine my surprise though, to read last week that Taiwan's Commander-Of-The-Faithful only dispatched ONE rescue chopper the day after the storm . . . and took FOUR DAYS to authorize the use of the big helicopters.
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A while back, Taiwan's China Post took one of its usual swipes at the Dalai Lama, calling him a "one-time theocrat." True enough, I suppose, but it got me to thinking: Couldn't the "theocrat" appelation be applied with equal accuracy to Taiwan's current Chinese nationalist president, Ma Ying-jeou?
After all, in November of last year, Ma refused to permit the Dalai Lama into the country for the simple reason that the Tibetan religious figure doesn't kneel at the sacred high altar of Sino-imperialism. Then last week, when Ma was forced by political reasons to allow the Dalai Lama to visit on a religious mercy mission, Taiwan's Supreme Leader again assumed the role of religious tyrant by issuing a government gag order on the Buddhist pontiff.
Politics and economics should be separate, Ma tirelessly preaches from his pulpit. But politics and religion? Not a word from hizzoner on that score . . .
Taiwanese Falun Gong followers — I'd be afraid if I were you right now. There's no telling how many of your rights Taiwan's self-declared high priest of religious orthodoxy is prepared to sacrifice in the name of enjoying "good relations with Beijing".
So the Dalai Lama left Taiwan on Friday, after a religious mission for the five hundred souls lost in the wake of Typhoon Morakot.
Seemed like a pretty innocuous mission. The man comes to Taiwan, says a few prayers for the dead, comforts the surviving kin. Who'd object to that?
Beijing, it goes without saying. But to outsiders it would appear remarkable that the governing Chinese Nationalist Party of Taiwan ALSO objected to a visit by his Holiness. Taiwan's China Post had this to say:
But the timing [for the Dalai Lama to come to Taiwan] isn't right for Taiwan, this time around. Taiwan is trying what it can to improve relations with China. It is relying ever more heavily on the other side of the Taiwan Strait for getting out of its current economic downturn and the global financial crisis.
Fortunate it is for the China Post that the KMT recently legalized prostitution in Taiwan. Now the paper's editors can rent themselves out to the Communist Party nightly — without any fear of ever being arrested!
So my question for the Post is this: If 500 dead Taiwanese aren't ENOUGH reason for a religious mercy mission from a world-renowned religious figure, what would be?
1000? 10,000? 100,000?
Exactly how many MORE bloated corpses buried in the fetid mud would the China Post and the KMT have liked there to have been before they'd have welcomed the Dalai Lama without reservation?
A couple weeks ago, David Ting (of Taiwan's China Post) wrote a column which invited comparison between the Blagojevich case in America with the Chen Shui-bian case in Taiwan:
Chen Shui-bian's frothy-mouthed drivel in court, defiant and unchastened, evokes images of Ron [sic] Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois who was impeached and ousted from office two months ago for "plotting to sell" [an] Illinois senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. "Blago" too, denied he had ever done anything wrong. Yes, if by A-bian's standard. The youthful-looking Serb descendant was only guilty of "plotting to sell the plum position, and had his political career ruined. Was Blagojevich aggrieved? The international media showed no sympathy for him. It seems, therefore, our ex-president may have made the wrong bet by trying to politicize his case with the help of foreign media, which may cut both ways.
The issue of Blagojevich's and Chen's innocence or guilt is completely separate from the question as to whether their treatment by the justice system has been politically-neutral. Compare and contrast:
1) After Blagojevich received his bail-bond hearing, police escorted him out of the courthouse through an underground tunnel so the media could NOT take any "gotcha!" perp-walk footage.
Taiwan's former president was treated with far less discretion. Police paraded him in handcuffs in full view of media cameras.
2) Blagojevich was granted bail on the very same day he was arrested. Bail was set at a paltry $4,500. In addition, his passport was confiscated as a precaution against flight.
Taiwan's Chen Shui-bian was not granted bail — he was instead thrown into pre-trial detention, where conditions are apparently worse than Taiwan's regular penal system. No hot showers, even in winter. Bread and water for lunch. That sort of thing.
(Chen's most recent request for bail was denied, partly because the current judge said the former president has not shown REMORSE for crimes he has not yet been tried or convicted upon. This court will not grant you the presumption of innocence, sir, unless you first admit to us that you are GUILTY!)
3) Blagojevich is at liberty to publicly protest his innocence on CBS' Late Night with David Letterman, NBC's Today, CNN's Larry King Live and Fox's On the Record with Greta van Susteren.
Taiwan's Chen on the other hand, was held incommunicado to all, save his lawyer. In fact, when Chen's lawyer relayed to the public a POEM the former president wrote in detention to his wife, the KMT government began exploring options for legal sanctions against that lawyer.
(For purposes of completeness, I should also mention that Chen WAS briefly released by a judge, after which a KMT legislator threatened to have the judge investigated. When the judge was duly replaced, the new judge sent Chen back to detention. Chen is, however, now permitted at least SOME contact with the outside world, I understand.)
4) To my knowledge, no Republican politician has ever publicly gloated over Blagojevich's fall.
In Taiwan, KMT legislators openly remarked that Chen's arrest was a joyous event. Some of the rank-and-file agreed, setting off firecrackers in celebration.
Postscript: The treatment of Bernard Madoff, the man accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, is also instructive.
Bernard Madoff was initially offered bail at $10 million. When he couldn't come up with the money, he was offered an ankle bracelet and house arrest:
The new conditions require "round-the-clock monitoring at the defendant's building, 24 hours a day, including video monitoring of the defendant's apartment door(s) and communications devices and services permitting it to send a direct signal from an observation post to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the event of the appearance of harm or flight." Both Madoff and his wife, Ruth, have surrendered their passports as a part of the bail condition, and Ruth Madoff has signed confessions of judgment on the multi-million dollar properties in her name in Palm Beach, Florida and Montauk, Long Island, two of the nation's most desirous luxury retreats.
Now, Madoff's crimes are truly despicable. A $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Some people say $17 billion — whatever. Charities — including Elie Wiesel's — plundered of their assets. People's life savings wiped out. Two or three suicides, so far . . .
And yet, despite public opposition, the American judge decided that house arrest in this case was preferable to incarceration. Preferable, that is, until the defendant had been found guilty in a court of law. There was no rush — society could surely wait 6 months or a year before sending Madoff to the big house. (And as it turned out, it only took 3 months for the guy to plead guilty.)
What I've tried to demonstrate is that the Taiwanese judicial system has always had a whole spectrum of legal instruments to wield against former president Chen, and has at almost every turn chosen the harshest and most punitive. Bail (be it $4,500 or $10 million), passport confiscation, ankle bracelets or house arrest — all these things were options for dealing with the POSSIBILITY of Chen's flight prior to trial. Yet the court scorned them in favor of pretrial detention in which the suspect was held incommunicado.
I think it's fair for the international media to wonder why.