Tag: Taiwan

Politicos With Low Irony Quotients

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?"

Loyal Son Of The Yellow Emperor Sells Out Taiwan

Taiwan Today has the story:

The ROC Military Supreme Court sentenced former Maj. Gen. Lo Hsien-che to life imprisonment July 25 for selling secrets to mainland China and jeopardizing national security.

Taiwan's Major General Lo Hsien-che

(Major General Lo Hsien-che image from Taiwan Today.)

SinoDaily describes the information Taiwan's Turncoat General is said to have passed along to China:

. . . documents Lo handed over to China included details of the Po Sheng (Broad Victory) command, control and communications system that Taiwan is buying from US defence contractor Lockheed Martin for US$1.6 billion.

They said Beijing is believed to be extremely interested in learning more about the project, which gives the Taiwanese military some access to US intelligence systems.

Other information leaked by Lo reportedly covered the army's procurement of 30 Boeing-made Apache AH-64D Longbow attack helicopters and the army's underground optical fibre network.

As for motive, there are some reports that Maj. Gen. Lo was seduced by a Chinese female agent. Lo, on the other hand, claims he turned traitor only after Chinese Intelligence threatened to expose damaging photos of himself in the company of Thai prostitutes, taken while he was stationed in Bangkok. (As utterly improbable as THAT scenario may sound…)

Others may speculate that he was merely doing some "eventual reunification" freelance work. As some Chinese Nationalists have occasionally been known to do.

Former KMT chairman Lien Chan in a protective blue animal care suit, beaming with a baby panda in his lap.

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Are You Enjoying Your Kep-mok Blood Ticks, Dr. Lazarus?

"Just like mother used to make."

An image of large ticks in a bowl of water next to a picture of Doctor Lazarus looking at one in his spoon with disgust. From Galaxy Quest.

Perhaps he'd find them more savory with some soy sauce and a few green onions on the side:

Taiwanese food critics and gastronomists called a report on century eggs by an American on CNN’s iReport “unfair,” saying it undervalued the nature of the dish.

“Awful . . .  It tastes like something that used to be an egg, but made some really horrible choices,” the iReporter said of century eggs.

[…]

Century eggs, also known as pi dan (皮蛋), are made by wrapping the eggs of ducks and chickens in a mixture of clay, ash, salt and various traditional medicines for a period ranging from several weeks to several months.

By all accounts, there were even charges of racism leveled at the food reviewer, for his "bigotry" in not finding the Taiwanese delicacy to his liking!

While one fully expects Chinese nationalists to descend to such levels of Sino-centric parochial lunacy, it is somewhat disappointing to see Taiwanese reacting along the same lines.  And rather counter-productive, given Taiwan's (probably unrealistic) ambitions of one day becoming a foreign tourist mecca.

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Taiwan’s Worst Place To Hold A Convention

Taipei's Grand Hotel wins that dubious honor, and then takes the cake:

Clashes broke out between Tibet support groups and Grand Hotel staff in the lobby yesterday after the management canceled a room reservation made by the groups in preparation for the arrival of a delegation headed by Sichuan Province Governor Jiang Jufeng (蔣巨峰).

“We have signed a [room rental] contract with you and it was clearly written on the contract that the room would be used to hold a press conference. How can you cancel our reservation at the last minute? Is this how the Grand Hotel honors its business contracts?” Taiwan Friends of Tibet (TFOT) president Chow Mei-li (周美里) asked Grand Hotel manager Michael Chen (陳行中) after being informed of the cancelation. [emphasis added]

Granted, it's understandable that the hotel management would want to avoid unpleasantness under their roof. The type of unpleasantness that might ensue after renting rooms to antagonistic parties. However, a contract is a contract, and having signed it the hotel was obligated to manage the situation as best it could.

But instead, hotel management decided to compound their error by plunging themselves into a public relations fiasco:

More serious verbal and physical conflict broke out when Tibetans accompanying Chow grew impatient and took out banners and Tibetan flags that were to be used to decorate the news conference venue. They shouted slogans calling on Jiang to release the more than 300 monks arrested from Kirti Monastery in the predominantly Tibetan area of Ngaba in Sichuan Province and to withdraw troops and police that had placed the monastery under siege.

The manager and other members of the hotel management tried to take the signs and banners from the Tibetans by force.

The two sides pushed and shoved, while hotel management and staffers chased Tibetans running around the lobby with Tibetan flags in hand. [emphasis added]

What a lovely picture that makes — tourism workers in democratic Taiwan reduced to acting as paid goons of the Chinese Communist Party.

"Room service? This is the C.C.P. delegation. Someone here spotted a cockroach and a Tibetan on the premises. Would you kindly send somebody up to remove them?"

Security at Taiwan's Grand Hotel seize Tibetan guest on behalf of Chinese Communist Party guests. Hotel security attempts to pull the Tibetan's flag from his hands.

(Operating under the theory that "no publicity is bad publicity", thugs in the employ of Taipei's Grand Hotel set upon an unarmed Tibetan dissident in full view of press photographers. Image from the Taipei Times.)

But the hotel's antics were was all for nothing, because when police arrived, they took one look at the rental contract and admitted the Tibetans had a point. After which management conceded, grudgingly allowing the press conference to go forward . . . in a different room in the hotel.

Heaven forbid anyone should ever label Michael Chen, manager of Taipei's Grand Hotel, a collaborator.

But one really does have to wonder at the new paint job he's given the place…

Taiwan's red and green Grand Hotel against a blue sky, with the stars of Communist China's flag overlaid on the exterior.

UPDATE (May 24/11): Taiwan's premier communist-funded newspaper, The China Post, spikes the story.

Imagine that.

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Taiwan’s China Post On Zhongnanhai’s Payroll

Till today, I never knew the fellow-travellers there were actually on the take — receiving advertorial money on a regular basis from the Butchers of Beijing.

From their grotesque opposition to defensive weaponry for Taiwan, to their sly anti-Dalai Lama rhetoric, to their enthusiastic support of the Politburo's demeaning "Chinese Taipei" appellation for the R.O.C., down to their unseemly cheerleading for the modern Chinese economic model (& on occassion, its political leadership as well) — all these stances for several years now have made the paper's sell-out apparent to all.

But I'd always chalked-up the KMT mouthpiece's new-found pro-Communist leanings to the sentiments of Chinese ultranationalists who had made their peace with 'Communism' (if not 'communism'). How wrong I was.

As the paper was once fond of saying, cui bono?

That's Latin for, "Who benefits?" Or in the modern vernacular, "Follow the money".

KMT Blackshirts Work Hand In Glove With Taiwan Security Forces

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?

A large group of Taiwanese mafia foot soldiers, each wearing black t-shirts and matching pants.

 
(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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Moral Retardation

[Pretty graphic image in the postscript.  Readers may not wish to be eating while they scroll down.]

Interesting study concluding that babies as young as 6 months old already have the rudiments of a conscience, and can tell the difference between right and wrong (in their own fashion).  Not sure that I necessarily buy the method behind it, but intuitively the general concept seems valid – that morality is hardwired in us at birth to some degree or another.

Of course there are always exceptions, whom we generally describe as being sociopaths.  Take for example, when the subject of the revolutions taking place in the Middle East came up.  Carl Natong, a frequent commenter at Taiwan's pro-Communist China Post, had this to say:

Just think of our own country and family. Never mind about DEMOCRACY, COMMUNIST or other's system of gov't. Never mind what Uncle Sam shouting about DEMOCRACY.

Translation: a pig is a dog is a boy.  Mullah Omar = the Dalai Lama = Ayatollah Khomeini = Mahatma Gandhi.  And oh yes, all political systems are created equal.  Who are WE to judge?

(And when Chiang Kai-shek or the Chinese Communist Party give you the orders to kill unarmed civilian protesters — be it February 28th or June 4th – you'd better damn well shoot.  You OBEY the bloody orders your Chinese Fuhrer gives you.  And you do it for mom, pop and the Fatherland.)

Poor Carl.  Now that Taiwan's a democracy, the poor dear must be ever so disappointed that he can't find that plum political prison kapo job he was born and bred to believe was his birthright.

As an antidote to Carl Natong's ravings, I offer a short quote from someone who has just a little more grey matter.  Someone who IS able to distinguish the difference between dictatorship and democracy.  Someone who was there at Tahrir Square when Egypt's dictator went into forced retirement.  A blogger who goes by the nomme-de-guerre Sandmonkey:

Tonight will be the first night where I go to bed and don't have to worry about state security hunting me down, or about government goons sent to kidnap me; or about government sponsored hackers attacking my website. Tonight, for the first time ever, I feel free…and it is awesome!

Postscript:  Lot of Sinofascist conspiracy-theorizing at that China Post link, speculating about who are the devious instigators behind the current Middle Eastern demonstrations.  (America and the CIA of course being the perennial favorites.  Although it is strange that none of the Post's resident whackjobs have yet to mention the Japanese the Nipponese, the Jooos, the Alien Saucer people or hallucinogens in the Nescafe.  But just give 'em some time . . .)

Truth be told, the only instigators are the Arab leaders themselves.  Hosni Mubarek was pressured for THIRTY FREAKIN' YEARS by FIVE different American administrations to democratize — or at least liberalize — and the stupid bastard didn't.  (In that sense, he shares a lot in common with another stupid evil bastard, Chiang Kai-shek.)

So eventually the balloon goes up, because people have decided that they didn't want to put up with any of Mubarek's shit anymore.  Exactly why this is so hard for the China Post and its tinfoil hat-wearing commenters, I really don't know.

(What's doubly tragic is that the Communist Party of China no doubt believes their own idiotic propaganda that democracy is a Western plot to destabilize their country, and will take all the wrong lessons from Egypt and Libya.  So instead of liberalizing and aiming for a soft landing, they'll add to their apparatus of coercion and repression.  "Oh, look at us, we are so damn clever."  Thereby doing nothing more than postponing the Gotterdammerung that's certain to happen there someday when the population explodes in hateful rage.  And when that day happens and Chinese blood is flowing through the streets like a river, it will be the C.C.P.'s own damn fault.)

Again, I quote Sandmonkey, who tells how the benevolent Egyptian regime treated a blogger who was documenting police corruption.  It's eerily similar to some of the human rights abuses one hears about in China:

[Khaled Said was] a 28 year old Alexandrian man, who got killed on the hands of two policemen a few days ago [This was back in June of 2010 — The Foreigner]. And the story is equally disturbing and terrifying in its simplicity: He simply was sitting in a Cyber Cafe, when two policemen walked inside and demanded the ID's of everyone who was sitting there. When he refused to give it to them, they grabbed him, tied him up, dragged him out of the Cafe, took him to a nearby building where for 20 minutes they beat him to death, smashing his head on the handrail of the staircase, while he screamed and begged for his life, and as people around watched helplessly, knowing that if they did something, they would be accused of assaulting a police officer, which would pretty much guarantee them a similar fate. This went on for 20 minutes. Think about that. You are beaten to death, by those who swore to protect you, while the people in your neighborhood watched silently, and as your pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears. 28. Not yet married. Still having the rest of your life ahead of you. No More.

After the police discovered he died, they took the dead body to the Police station, where the Police [Chief] ordered them to throw it back on the street and call an ambulance, in order not to be held responsible for him. When his brother- who had American citizenship- found out, he went and confronted the head of the Police in his neighborhood, who told him that the story isn't true, and that his brother was a known drug offender and that he died from asphyxiation, for swallowing a bag of drugs when the police caught him with it. 

This is Khaled before the "Asphyxiation":

Khaled Said before being murdered in June 2010 by the Egyptian Mubarak regime.

This is Khaled after his "Asphyxiation":

Khaled Said's face after being horribly beaten and mangled. Said was murdered in June 2010 by the Egyptian Mubarak regime.

Sandmonkey sardonically remarks:

"Amazing what Asphyxiation does to you these days, no?"

It's worth noting that under the former military dictatorship of the Chinese Nationalist Party, Taiwan too had its own share of 'accidental' deaths.  Which thankfully, are now mercifully rare – since the advent of democracy.  And oh, what a bitter pill that must be to Carl and the rest of his fellow KMT die-hards!

One thing I DO wonder though:  did Khaled here take Carl Natong's Peter-Pan advice and "just think of his own family and country" while the cops of Mubarek's dictatorship were beating him into an unrecognizable pulp? 

And if he DID follow Carl Natong's perfectly marvelous suggestion, did "just thinking of his own family and country" during his last few horrific minutes on this earth make his journey into the next world one iota easier?

The story does have an epilogue, though, which Sandmonkey doesn't elaborate on.  Only 7 months after this atrocity, one of the chief communication centers for the opposition rallies was an Egyptian Facebook page.  A page titled, coincidentally, "We are Khalid Said".

It's a page which currently has 464,000 friends.

Correction:  Make that 464,000 — and counting . . .

UPDATE:  Way heavy post.  For a little levity, see SatireWire's latest:  Charlie Sheen to help Arabs take freedom to 'Next Level'

UPDATE #2:  A generally positive LONG-TERM view, by Anne Applebaum.

UPDATE #3:  Great stuff from Michael Totten on Libya.  And he also wrote this, a long but amazing travelogue of his trip there (I believe from 2004).  A sample:

I met one shopkeeper who opened right up when he and I found ourselves alone in his store.

“Do Americans know much about Libya?” he said.

“No,” I said. “Not really.”

He wanted to teach me something about his country, but he didn’t know where to start. So he recited encyclopedia factoids.

[ . . . ]

“And Qaddafi is our president,” he said. “About him, no comment.” He laughed, but I don’t think he thought it was funny.

“Oh, come on,” I said. “Comment away. I don’t live here.”

He thought about that. For a long drawn-out moment, he calculated the odds and weighed the consequences. Then the dam burst.

“We hate that fucking bastard, we have nothing to do with him. Nothing. We keep our heads down and our mouths shut. We do our jobs, we go home. If I talk, they will take me out of my house in the night and put me in prison.

“Qaddafi steals,” he told me. “He steals from us.” He spoke rapidly now, twice as fast as before, as though he had been holding back all his life. He wiped sweat off his forehead with trembling hands. “The oil money goes to his friends. Tunisians next door are richer and they don’t even have any oil.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

“We get three or four hundred dinars each month to live on. Our families are huge, we have five or six children . . ."

Hmm.  "Keep your heads down and your mouths shut."  To a Sinofascist of Carl Natong's ilk, there's a rosy vision of Taiwan's Paradise Lost.

UPDATE #4:  Very cool ABC news report yesterday about the subterfuge Libyans used to bypass Gaddafi's blocking of Facebook.  Facebook gets blocked?  No problemo.  Just use dating sites to communicate with each other, instead!

When Mahmoudi created his pretend profile on Mawada, he figured 50,000 supporters would be enough to take to the streets. But using various aliases on the dating site, he said he ended up with 171,323 "admirers" by the time Libya's Internet crashed last Saturday.

Pity that I can't locate the video clip for y'all.

UPDATE #5:  Never knew two thirds of the people living in oil-rich Libya only earn $2 a day.  Might be someone's been skimmin' from the kitty.

Also some very hopeful stuff there on the emergence of civil society in Libya based on the tribes.  Of course, tribalism is a dirty word at Taiwan's China Post — but it should be remembered that it was the tribes of Iraq which prevented Al Qaeda from seizing power there.

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Koan For A Zen Master

A wonderful line from one of the China Post's recent editorials (inadvertently) illustrates the absurdity of Taiwan basing its China policy on a "consensus" supposedly formulated by two unelected bureaucrats sent by Taiwan & China to negotiate with one another back in 1992:

Although the Chinese communists and the nationalists cannot agree on what was actually agreed on in their 1992 talks . . .

While I do not spend much time contemplating the sound of one hand clapping, or pondering what the definition of the word 'is' is, something this inane simply must be immortalized.  Not with mere words, but by taking quill to parchment, and committing lyric to verse.

Snatch the pebble from my hand, Grasshopper:

Can we agree an agreement
is still an agreement,
if those in agreement
cannot agree
upon what was agreed
in the agreement?

It would be par for the course to find metaphysicians and mystics answering in the affirmative.  However, it is tantamount to professional malpractice when the president of a country — someone supposedly well-schooled in contract law – maintains such a proposition holds true.

So, How’s That Diplomatic Truce Workin’ Out For Ya?

Time was when China would lure Taiwan's diplomatic allies away from Taiwan.  But back in 2008, Ma Ying-jeou of the Chinese Nationalist Party was elected president of Taiwan.  And the hemorrhaging suddenly stopped.

Whether rightly or wrongly, President Ma was able to take some kind of credit for that.

So it must have come as quite a slap to the face when China sandbagged Ma.  Only instead of swiping one of Taiwan's allies, as was its previous custom, this time it seized 14 Taiwanese citizens on foreign soil instead.   And had them extradited to the P.R.C. to stand trial.

There are some who might not call this an improvement.

Postscript:  "Beijing Bob", at Taiwan's China Post, predictably characterizes China's effrontery as, "No loss of Taiwan's national sovereignty."

Which merits a Swiftian-style Modest Proposal:  If Taiwan truly doesn't suffer any loss of national sovereignty when its citizens are tried in Chinese Communist courts, then wouldn't Taiwanese interests be even better-served by simply abolishing its own law courts entirely and subsequently shipping all of its criminals to China?  Think of the time, effort, and most importantly, the MONEY that could be saved.

And the best part is, there would be no downside.  Consider:

a) There would be no loss of national sovereignty, as the China Post — the most honest newspaper in the history of the world — assures us. 

b)  Only vicious Sinophobes question the integrity, political neutrality and fierce commitment to the rule of law that is the solid bedrock of the Chinese judicial system.

c)  As people of Chinese descent (and members of the Chinese "race-nation"), Taiwanese can rest easy that they will be treated more-than-fairly under Chinese law.  After all, "blood IS thicker than water" . . . and the judge and prosecutors in the courtroom will be "son's of the Yellow Emperor", too.

(Or son's of somethings, at any rate.)