Category: Taiwanese Politics

Death Threats

The View from Taiwan has a post about the death threats that were issued over the weekend against KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou in the southern city of Gowshung.  Let me go on record as saying that this is outrageous; the underground disc jockeys who made those threats should be hunted down, prosecuted, and thrown unceremoniously into a prison cell.

Which they can then share with KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou and former KMT chairman Lien Chan.  Both of whom are ALSO guilty of issuing public death threats against political rivals.

The interesting thing about the latter two is that whenever they issue statements that someone should be murdered, the China Post always excuses it by claiming that the Mandarin expressions that they used can be interpreted in other, more innocuous ways.

At that point, it becomes very difficult for a non-Mandarin speaker such as myself to evaluate whether we’re being given the truth or a whole lotta disingenuous spin.*  Let’s be honest: It’s a bit ambiguous if someone uses the common English expression, "politician John Smith is going to be toast".  Of course it can mean that they want to defeat Smith politically, but it can also mean something much more sinister.

Having said that though, my suspicion is that there’s probably only one interpretation for a "dare-to-die assassination squad".

* The smart money would bet that it’s disingenuous spin.  C’mon, it’s the China Post we’re talkin’ here!

UPDATE (June 17/06):  The news on Thursday was that Ma Ying-jeou apologized for declaring that President Chen would be "toppled" and meet with a "foul death" if he didn’t resign from office.  I was going to give him credit for that here, but then I noticed that he did so only after CHARGES were filed against him.  In essence, Ma said, "So sorry – now go arrest somebody else."

Not sure if that really deserves much of a pat on the back.

Meanwhile, Friday’s papers informed us that four of the accused underground radio stations were raided and three of their talk show hosts were arrested.  One of them asked why she was being arrested, while pro-KMT stations that advocated assassinating President Chen or former president Lee were left untouched by the law.

Good question.  Doesn’t necessarily mean that these three shouldn’t have been arrested, but it’s still a good question.

A better question is what’s to be done with Ma.  Politically, it’s impossible to arrest him.  You’d have riots on your hands.  President Chen would be accused of being a dictator, at home and abroad.

Arrest Ma?  Some pretty serious consequences involved, there.

The alternative, however, is also unpalatable.  It’s patently unfair to punish three common folk while letting the chairman of the KMT get off scot-free.  To do so does violence to the principle of Equality before the Law.

As I said:  What to do, what to do?

UPDATE (June 20/06):  The Taiwan News dismisses the statements allegedly made by the underground radio stations, claiming that they were made "tongue-in-cheek".  That may be so, or it may just amount to special pleading.  I honestly can’t say.

But even if the threats WERE done with tongue planted in cheek, they still constitute a threat to social peace.  One lone crazy took the KMT’s hyperbole seriously in 2004, and managed to single-handedly cause a whole heap of trouble.  An air passenger who makes a bomb threat quickly learns, "I was just joking," isn’t an acceptable excuse.

UPDATE (June 24/06):  One of the alleged death threats made at one of the radio stations consisted of an elderly woman calling in and calling for Taiwanese to "rise up in rebellion and raise our hoes."  Sorry, but that doesn’t sound much worse than Pat Buchanan’s "peasants and pitchforks" comments a few years back.

Yesterday’s papers also covered the antics of Chiang Lien-fu, KMT member:

One lawmaker…took a small doll resembling [Taiwan’s President] Chen to the podium.  [He] then whipped out a toy gun and pointed it at the doll’s head and fired.

"The 23 million people here [in Taiwan] will help you end your life," Chiang said as he pulled the trigger.

Taiwanese KMT legislator Chiang Lien-fu aims a gun at a toy doll of Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian in Taiwan's parliament

(Image from the June 24, 2006 ed of the Taipei Times.)

Classy.  Must really burn him up that that KMT assassin in ’04 was such a bad shot.

UPDATE #4 (June 24/06):  I’ve been remiss in not pointing to Maddog’s post on the subject, where he provides a pretty thorough accounting of KMT threats / violence against political opponents.  But get this:  That laundry list doesn’t start from 50 years ago, but from 2004.

UPDATE (June 28/06):  Yesterday’s Taiwan News had an editorial listing some of the placard slogans at an "Impeach Chen" rally:

“Execute [President] Chen Shui-bian!”

“Liquidate Chen Shui-bian!”

“Liquidate [President Chen’s wife] Wu Shu-chen!”

“Assassinate Bian!”

“Drink A-bian’s blood!” [A-bian is President Chen’s nickname]

Interestingly, yesterday’s Taiwan News points out that James Soong has tended to use less violent rhetoric towards President Chen than KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou, despite the fact that Soong has advocated more confrontational tactics than Ma.

Don’t know how long that’ll continue:  Today’s Taipei Times quotes Soong as saying, "I would like to shed my blood for Taiwan if the bloodless revolution [to remove President Chen from office] fails."

i-1

Parliamentary Maneuver Of The Week

I’ve heard about filibusters.  Filibusters, I’ve heard about.

I’ve also heard about sick legislators being wheeled into chambers to vote from ambulance gurneys.  And legislators holding the elevator to prevent rival party members from reaching the floor for critical votes.

But I ain’t never heard of anything like this:

In a melee on the floor of the nation’s highest legislative organ, a DPP lady lawmaker tried to eat a written cloture motion to put [a] bill to a vote.

[…]

Wang Shu-hui snatched the paper from her People First Party colleague Ko Shu-min, who was going to the chair to present it to Wang Jin-pyng, Legislative Yuan president, in the first free-for-all of the day.

[…]

In the hustle that followed, Wang Shu-hui popped the paper into her mouth to prevent PFP lawmakers, who rushed to help their lady colleague, from recovering it.

The Taipei Times describes how the conflict was resolved:

Wang later spat out the document and tore it up after opposition lawmakers failed to get her to cough it up by pulling her hair.

Lucy and Ethel unwillingly eating chocolates to keep the chocolate production line running in a factory. From the I Love Lucy tv show

Part of me says give Ms. Wang ten out of ten for creativity, while the other part says that this is a pretty bad thing, because democracy itself depends upon a certain elementary level of civility.

The reason for the contention was that the KMT / PFP was attempting to establish direct transportation links between Taiwan and China.  Direct links aren’t possible at present because the Communist Party of China refuses to directly negotiate with the Taiwanese government, so the KMT rather obligingly tried to neuter the Taiwanese government in order to make things easier for them.  In essence, the bill in question would have removed the Taiwanese government from the regulatory picture, allowing the communists to negotiate the matter with private Taiwanese entities.

So, that’s part of it.  Ms. Wang and the DPP regarded the bill as a sell-out to the communists, and they were willing to take extreme measures in order to stop it.  But I think there’s just a bit more to it than that.  The direct links bill isn’t merely a sell-out; it’s an IRREVERSIBLE sell-out.  If the bill is passed, Taiwan will move just a little bit deeper into China’s orbit.  Will successive Taiwanese governments ever be able to repeal the bill and re-establish control over this area of policy?

Not on your life.  Think about the grief the Taiwanese government received from both China and America over the abolition of the National Unification Council.  Now remember, THAT was a defunct body with a $30 a year budget that hadn’t met in seven years.  Direct links represents something much more substantial: the movement of hundreds of thousands of people between Taiwan and China yearly.

Imagine the fallout if a successive Taiwanese government were to try to alter THAT status quo.

UPDATE:  It’s a pity the China Post doesn’t post many pictures on its website, or I’d link to Picture #4 on the front page of the May 31st edition.  I’ll just describe it instead:

Ms. Wang’s head is pulled back by one woman from the PFP, who’s clutching a fistful of Wang’s hair.  Meanwhile, two men and one woman from the party tightly grip her arms and shoulders to restrain her.  One of the men has this big obscene grin on his face, making it seem like he enjoys holding her down just a bit too much.

Lovely.

UPDATE (June 10/06): Another clever parliamentary maneuver.  This time not from Taiwan, but Canada:

June 6 (Bloomberg ) — The Canadian government’s C$227 billion ($204 billion) budget was passed in the House of Commons after opposition lawmakers accidentally failed to stand up to debate the spending plan. (Emphasis added)

"It passed with unanimous consent,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters outside the House of Commons in Ottawa today.

The opposition allowed a federal budget bill to pass unanimously without debate?

Whoopsie-daisy.  Bet somebody’s asking for a ‘do-over’.

Hat tip to Kathryn Jean Lopez over at the National Review Corner.

i-1

Chen Delegates Presidential Power

Visited Taoyuan yesterday, and saw a Taiwanese motorcyclist wearing a grey Nazi helmet, complete with tilted, clockwise swastika.*  I wondered if he was even remotely aware that he was celebrating an ideology that would have classified him as an untermenschen.

Ah, well.  Not everybody can be a rocket scientist.

Seeing him though, made me regret that I didn’t go to yesterday’s anti-Chen rally in Taipei.  Likely as not, there would have been one of those Chen-as-Hitler effigies present, which I’d really have liked to have gotten a picture of.  I suppose it’s the irony that appeals to me.  This week, Chen voluntarily ‘delegated’ some of his powers, heeding demands by members of his party who were fed up with his falling poll numbers and an insider-trading scandal involving his brother-in-law.

Voluntarily relinquishing power – sure sounds like Hitler to me!

All this aside, the request to delegate executive power initially struck me as being unconstitutional, and indeed, Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT argued exactly that on Thursday.  Opposed to this were other commentators, who pointed out that since the limits of the Taiwanese presidency are vaguely defined in the first place**, relinquishing some of the powers that the president currently holds poses no constitutional problem.  Taking this a step further, Joe Hung of the China Post (and no friend to Chen) wrote that the only power the ROC president is explicitly given is the power to appoint the premier, so Chen’s decision to delegate really represents a movement to a more faithful reading of the constitution.  If Hung is right, then Ma is surely wrong:  It can hardly be unconstitutional for a president to relinquish powers he was never authorized to exercise in the first place.

Regardless of who’s right, the opposition can smell the blood in the water***.  To the consternation of his supporters however, Ma is playing it cool on all the talk of impeachment, claiming that he prefers to pull the trigger when he can be certain of hitting his mark.  Here though, he leaves unspoken the very real possibility that impeachment proceedings may do little more than rally dispirited and disillusioned Chen supporters.  Because while alleged insider trading by a brother-in-law may be politically embarrassing, it certainly isn’t an impeachable offence, provided that the President himself wasn’t personally involved in the matter. 

* The orientation of the swastika is not an unimportant detail, as a level, counter-clockwise swastika is a Buddhist symbol here, which is frequently used on signs to designate vegetarian restaurants.

** If the limits of the ROC presidency are truly ill-defined, then surely that would be an additional argument in favor of further constitutional reform.

*** Not being an ROC constitutional scholar, I’m still trying to figure all of this out.  But what I CAN say with some confidence is that there probably isn’t much constitutional basis for opposition demands that Vice-President Annette Lu step down because of her "lack of charisma".  I may not know much, but I’m reasonably sure that being charismatically-challenged isn’t a high crime or misdemeanor.

UPDATE (Jun 4/06):  I neglected to mention that some of the responsibilities that Chen gave up have nothing to do with his position as president, and instead are due to his position as a party heavyweight.  At least some of this should therefore be viewed as an intra-party power struggle, rather than as a constitutional violation.

No Wonder The KMT Wants Chen Impeached

Over at the China Post, Joe Hung on Monday put his keen analytical mind to work examining President Chen’s failings, and discovered that Chen apologizes just too darn much for his liking.

In his piece, entitled, President Chen has apologized 10 times in six years, Hung triumphantly observes:

President Chen Shui-bian is the most apologetic chief of state in Taiwan’s brief annals of democratic government — and probably in world history as well.

He has apologized ten times in the six years of his presidency.

That’s ten apologies issued within six years.  Obviously, the guy’s worse than Hitler.

In all fairness, Chen has apologized for some pretty serious misdeeds:

[During a trip to Taipei in 2004, former Czech president Vaclav] Havel tripped [in his hotel room] and suffered some injuries. President Chen apologized to him on October 28th.

So, let me try to picture this:

Chen Shui-bian: I’m sorry, President Havel, that you got hurt while visiting this beautiful country of ours.

Joe Hung: (watching TV, ticking off scorecard) Aha!  Gotcha!

I hope no one takes this post as me being critical of other people’s hobbies.  After all, if birdwatchers can keep meticulous records of the birds they’ve spotted, then what’s wrong with Dr. Hung keeping track of the number of times that President Chen apologizes?

Whatever floats your boat, Joe.

Party on.

Well, Isn’t That Special?

Sorry for not posting for the last two weeks.  Had a lot of work…and really bad insomnia.

Couldn’t let last Sunday’s China Post editorial slip by without comment, though:

In the course of planning surprise visits by our president to countries that have no formal diplomatic relations with us, it is sometimes understandable that government officials try to keep their cards close to their chest.

Uh-huh.  Beijing frequently sends its diplomats to cajole or bully other countries into denying planes carrying Taiwanese officials a place to land.  As a result, the Chen administration misled reporters as to President Chen’s stopover point, thereby foiling Beijing’s plans.  Rather than congratulate Chen for outmaneuvering the Communists, the China Post saw fit to castigate him for, of all things, dishonesty:

From the very start of the nine-day trip, when the Foreign Ministry announced that the president’s plane would make a refueling stop in Alaska, it was clear that officials were making misleading announcements.

After the plane took off, reporters on board who were not told where they were going relied on hand-held compasses to confirm they were heading west and southwest, toward Southeast Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, rather than east toward the North American continent. Before his return trip, false announcements were again made suggesting places where President Chen’s aircraft would stop over, only to have the president make jaunts to Libya and Indonesia.

[…]

In his announcement made over the aircraft’s public address system, President Chen addressed demands that Foreign Minister James Huang step down for blatantly lying about every detail of the trip.

[…]

If Foreign Minister Huang was instructed to tell lies by the president and other superiors, we can forgive him for that. But we should not forgive President Chen for his bizarre and cavalier attitude about telling lies, even if those lies are ostensibly for a good cause.

In the future, President Chen would be wiser to follow the international standard of "refusing to confirm or deny" rather than lying point blank. Rather than do no harm by just keeping mum, President Chen has instead fostered a dangerous culture of lying. (Emphasis added)

Churchill once said that in war, truth is so precious that she should always be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies.  That’s probably irrelevant though, because the China Post doesn’t view the Communist Party of China as being hostile, let alone as being an enemy.  But when its editorialists accuse others of "fostering a dangerous culture of lying", they should perhaps reflect on the possibility that a few of their own fabrications might contribute to that culture as well:

[One of the reasons that the U.S. refused Chen a transit stop on the American mainland is that it] has also been annoyed by Chen’s lukewarm response to Bush’s 2001 offer of selling an unprecedented robust package of advanced arms to Taiwan.

(From Chen’s problems U.S.-made, The China Post, May 9/06)

Staggering.  Chen and his party attempted to bring the arms package to a vote over fifty times, but were blocked each and every time by the opposition KMT party.  Meanwhile, it was the China Post that cheered, or least rationalized, the KMT’s obstructionism.

And now, given its own record of hostility to the deal, that newspaper has the face to claim that it was Chen’s response that was lukewarm?

Friendship

How does the joke go?  A friend is someone who’s always there to help you; a true friend is someone who will stick around afterwards to help bury the bodies.

By that measure, Taiwan’s KMT must now be counted as a true friend of the Communist Party of China:

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus [on May 2nd] blocked a legislative resolution that would have asked the UN and international human-rights groups to investigate China’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

[…]

According to the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association, China has stepped up persecution of Falun Gong members, imprisoning them in concentration camps — including one in Liaoning Province where some are said to have had organs removed for transplant.

I’m SO disillusioned.  The China Post has written countless editorials extolling the KMT’s love of sweet veritas.  President Chen beat the KMT in an election after being shot.  Give us the truth, the China Post repeatedly states – we have to know how Chen orchestrated the assassination attempt on his own life in order to win crucial sympathy votes!

But now, despite that kind of idealistic commitment to the truth, the KMT helps the CCP bury corpses.  Say it ain’t so!  Someone wants to look into whether the Communists murdered members of a religious minority and harvested their organs?  Why, a trivial little matter like that, and the KMT’s appetite for investigations vanishes.  Let’s just quietly kill this in committee instead, they whisper.

What’s remarkable about the entire affair is that even members from the People First Party (a heavily pro-Communist political group) were in favor of the measure.  Their allies in the KMT would have nothing of it, however.  An investigation like that would destroy all of the KMT’s hard work to cozy up to the Communists.  An investigation like that would look bad when China makes a grab for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.  An investigation like that would make the Taiwanese reluctant to hitch their wagon to China’s star.

Dare I also point out that shining light on the subject might also reduce the available supply of fresh kidneys, hearts and corneas for members of Taiwan’s KMT?  Maybe it’s just a coincidence that a large number of them happen to be a tad on the geriatric side.

“Duty” Duty

Must be a lotta angry bureaucrats in the southern Taiwanese county of Tainan right about now…

The Tainan County Government implemented a trend-setting measure yesterday by requiring its staff to clean their office bathrooms.

Despite protests from some bureaucrats, County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) said he would stand by his decision as part of his effort to promote good public hygiene practices throughout the county.

Many county employees came to work 30 minutes early, dressed in casual clothes, to clean the toilets. Su took the lead by cleaning the bathrooms next to his office.

First, a little backstory:  Elementary and junior high schools in Taiwan save money on janitorial staff by having their students clean the bathrooms.  Recently though, a few Tainan County schools decided to contract outside firms because the students didn’t seem to care much for the job.  When the county commissioner heard what the school administrators were up to, he tried to shame them into abandoning their plans by demonstrating that even county bureaucrats are required to do that sort of work:

"I think county officials should set a good example for the younger generation by cleaning up their office restrooms themselves," [Su] said. "I hope all county residents can adopt good toilet habits and etiquette."

Now, I’m sure that a lot of people reading this will be saying to themselves, "Make government bureaucrats clean toilets?  Hmm!  Why didn’t we think of that?"

Before you get too enthusiastic though, just consider this scenario:  Take a bunch of civil servants who have passed a grueling set of government examinations to get jobs that have traditionally excluded janitorial work.  Now, make them mop up backed-up toilets. 

Oh, and the kicker is that they’ve got to come to work 30 minutes early in order to do it.  At no extra pay.

Maybe the commissioner will succeed in making the schools back down, but thank Heaven none of MY paperwork will ever cross his employees’ desks. 

You think bureaucrats have a reputation for surliness now?  Man, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

But I haven’t come to the best part yet.  You see, the Commish is so enamored of his revolutionary, trend-setting idea that he believes he can save the county even more money by appealing to the altruistic instincts of other virtuous citizens in the county:

Su said he would launch a campaign to recruit volunteers to clean all public lavatories in the county to replace the current outsourcing practice.  (Emphasis added)

In loo of any serious comment, I just have to say, Mr. Su, I think urine luck.  How could a campaign like that ever tank?  After all, the world’s overflowing with starry-eyed idealists – people who are flush with that good-old can-doo spirit.

Of course, the worst case is that not enough people will be Johnny-on-the-spot.  That’d present a wee bit of a problem.  If that happens, my Number One suggestion would be that you provide a set of incentives so that people don’t let this fabulous op-pooh-tunity go to waste.

As an initial measure, might I propose offering partial course credits for those currently working on their Pee-h.D.s?

Inflation Blues

Hey Mr. President
All you congressmen, too
You got me frustrated
And I don’t know what to do
I’m trying to make a living
I can’t save a cent
It takes all of my money
Just to eat and pay my rent
I got the blues
Got those inflation blues…

– B.B. King, Inflation Blues

About a week ago, I spoke to a Taiwanese who mentioned in passing that inflation was now a big problem in Taiwan.  I didn’t want to contradict her to her face, but I was puzzled by her claim.  Because when I go shopping, I can see that the price of orange juice is unchanged, that chicken prices are about the same, and the cost of a newspaper hasn’t gone up in years.  Inflation?  What inflation?

But that’s just anecdotal evidence.  On Wednesday, the China Post wrote an editorial revealing that consumer prices of basic necessities have increased by 10% this year.  Keep in mind that this is likely an overestimate, because consumer price indices have a difficult time reflecting improvements in quality of computers and other electronic goods.  Nevertheless, it seems that at least some inflation is occurring, and the editorialists offered a few solutions.  A few of their suggestions I agreed with, but there was one howler which merits discussion:

At a time when consumer prices continue rising with surging import costs, one effective way to counter the problem is to open up the domestic market particularly to China, a country on which we still impose sweeping restrictions for its products. Allowing in much lower priced mainland products may increase competition for domestic suppliers, but it will help offset a great deal of inflation, to the advantage of the consuming public.

Shazam!  China to the rescue!  Is there any problem from which Taiwan suffers that the Communist Party of China CAN’T solve?  Rather than propose a hike in interest rates (the most effective inflation-buster known to man), the China Post calls for Taiwan to become even more dependent upon supplies from its mortal enemy.  Surely, the economic dangers of such over-reliance should have been made clear to all by China’s recent decision to cripple Taiwan’s construction industry by eliminating gravel exports. *

Still, the basic idea of reducing inflation by allowing cheaper imports into the country is fundamentally sound, once one discards the notion that China (of all countries!) should be the source.  Taiwan currently has about 25 diplomatic allies in the world, and opening its markets further to their products would both reward them for their friendship, as well as be a big help to the Taiwanese consumer.

Following this, Taiwan could also increase market access to the countries that it has military relationships with, such as America and Japan.  Numerous people have informed me of the heavy import duties levied here on imported cars in order to protect the local auto industry.  Giving the local consumer a break on the price of Fords and Toyotas would greatly outweigh the benefits from giving them a bit of cheaper Chinese agricultural produce.

But the list doesn’t end there.  What of local democracies, such as the Philippines or Thailand?  Do they not also have inexpensive exports?  What about other developing countries?  In Asia?  In Africa?  In South America? 

(Heck, if you really want to scrape the bottom of the barrel, you could think about duty-free importation from Vietnam or Laos.  Sure, they may be communist, but they don’t have 800 missiles pointed at Taiwan now, do they?)

All-in-all, I can think of at least a HUNDRED countries which Taiwan could open its markets to, and bring tangible cost-savings to the Taiwanese consumer.  And yet, for some reason, the China Post‘s sympathy begins and ends with only one – the one country in the world that has sworn to annihilate the Taiwanese government.

Forever.

* The decision also highlighted the political subservience that accompanies economic dependence on Communist China as well.  A Taiwan News editorial notes:

…the chairman for the Taiwan National Construction Engineers Industrial Association [said that since] the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China clearly stated…Taiwan was an inseparable territory of China and not a "foreign country," the supply of Chinese gravel to Taiwan should [therefore] not be interrupted. (emphasis added)

"We’re part of Communist China, always were.  So please, please, please, give us our gravel!" the slavish Taiwanese construction leader cried.

And the China Post‘s response?  Taiwan should just be a good little province and tighten the noose around its neck even further.

UPDATE (May 10/06):  Just noticed that the price of bottled water that I usually buy here has risen from 22 to 25 New Taiwanese dollars.

I also noticed that President Chen and Central American governments are discussing free trade agreements with each other.  An agreement with Guatemala may be concluded this month, and one with El Salvador may be signed in October.  (From Chen talks FTAs with leaders of Central America from the May 9th Taiwan News.  Sorry, no link is available.)  Chen also announced that Paraguayan beef import quotas would be doubled, from 220 to 440 metric tons per year.

It seems then, that there is room for the Taiwanese government to help out the consumer, without following the China Post‘s advice of hitching an economic ride with Communist hatchet murderers.

Fingerprinting

Part of me HATES stuff like this:

The [Taiwanese] Ministry of Justice said yesterday the requirement for visitors from China to have their fingerprints taken upon arrival should be implemented as soon as possible.

[…]

At present, certain categories of Chinese citizens, including professionals and technicians, can visit Taiwan. The newly revised statute on cross-strait exchanges requires fingerprinting for them, but the requirement has not been implemented because some complementary measures have yet to be fleshed out.

As the government is preparing to open the door for ordinary Chinese citizens to sightsee in Taiwan, the officials said they will push for a further law revision to require fingerprinting for Chinese tourists as well as Chinese fishery workers aboard Taiwanese fishing boats and seized illegal Chinese immigrants.

Unfortunately however, I don’t see how Taiwan can afford to be laissez faire about a million prospective tourists from a hostile foreign country flooding onto its shores.  Taiwan and China don’t share criminal dossiers, and the two countries have no extradition treaty.  What a terrific opportunity for China’s criminal element!

But let’s leave concerns about crime aside.  How would America have reacted if the Soviets had allowed 10 million of their citizens to visit PER YEAR?  Sure, on the one hand, a lot of those tourists would have gone home knowing that America wasn’t the demon that the communist propaganda mill was making it out to be.  But on the other hand, the possiblilities for breaches in national security might well have been intolerable.  Here in our time, it’s safe to say that there are plenty of young men from Muslim countries that would absolutely LOVE to visit America.  However, for some reason or another, they haven’t exactly been welcomed with open arms lately.  Ever wonder why THAT is?

So yeah, the libertarian in me has pretty strong reservations about fingerprinting tourists, whatever their national origin.  But the conservative in me, well, he can’t find it in himself to work up much outrage.  Because THAT guy’s of the opinion that if somebody wants to be treated like a friend, then they’d better damn well be willing to act like one.

UPDATE (Apr 28/06):  A KMT legislator suggested that other nationalities also be fingerprinted – in the interest of "impartiality".

Why stop there, Mr. Wizard?  Maybe Taiwan’s armed forces should begin training for a possible Lithuanian invasion.  In the interest of impartiality, of course.

Left Out

What’s this?  The FE’21 Department Store in Banciao had a "Sexy Women Party" and I wasn’t invited?

Sexy women party at FE21 department store in Banciao, Taiwan

(Image from the Taipei Times.)

Now I know how Ma Ying-jeou feels.  The other day, Ma, the rookie KMT chairman, couldn’t even manage to get an invite to a meeting held by lawmakers belonging to his own political party.

That’s COLD, baby.

The April 10th meeting consisted of 20 to 30 legislators from southern districts who are unhappy with the party’s current obstructionist policies.  There, attendees discussed changing the KMT’s platform, as well as methods for directing the party towards greater moderation on the issue of legislative gridlock.  A few days afterwards, the snubbed chairman was reduced to announcing he was "happy to see legislators have opinions on the party’s affairs."

Yeah, right.  And I’m happy that all those beautiful lingerie models had a really fun time at the Sexy Women Party.

You know – the one I wasn’t invited to.

UPDATE (Apr 18/06):  Ma’s weak position as KMT chairman is discussed in further detail in a post over at One Whole Jujuflop Situation.

It is intriguing to speculate that the 20 or 30 dissatisfied KMT party backbenchers might someday be tempted to go off and form their own breakaway party.  Such a possibility should not be dismissed out of hand, because such splits have happened to the KMT before.  And not so very long ago, either.

Suffice it to say that a true status quo party in Taiwan that could cooperate with independence parties on national-security issues and oppose them on certain independence-related issues would be a positive democratic development here.  Local politicians would then be provided with an example of how positive compromise and principled opposition can occur without parties resorting to the my-way-or-the-highway political tactics that remain a legacy of the martial law era.

UPDATE (Apr 26/06):  David over at One Whole Jujuflop Situation argues persuasively that the notion of a "non-obstructionist KMT faction" is entirely chimerical.  Instead, he suggests that the 30 KMT legislators met without Ma due to self-interest; they backed another man for KMT chairman during the leadership race, and now fear that the party may now change candidacy rules for THEIR SEATS in retaliation.

It looks then, that there may not be much ground for my speculations in my April 18th update.

i-1