As predicted, the investigation led by US forensic specialist Dr. Henry Lee (
Lee confirmed that President Chen and Vice President Lu were shot. According to Lee, the bullets were fired outside of the jeep and punched a hole in the windshield. Despite Lee's scientific analysis, the pan-blue camp still held a press conference yesterday to claim the incident is still shrouded in mystery.
The pan-blue camp has downplayed Lee's explanations, yet it cannot be said that Lee's investigation is biased or untrustworthy. In fact, during his 54-hour stay in Taiwan, Lee showed his full dedication to the task, his professional skills and his down-to-earth scientific approach. His performance received applause from Taiwan's investigators, the media and the public.
As Lee testified, the crime scene cannot be fully recreated, and can only reveal part of the truth, and to catch the perpetrator is not Lee's task. Yet because their minds are occupied by preconceived ideas, the pan-blues failed to benefit from Lee's insight. This political mindset is at the heart of our predicament.
Since the March 20 election, the pan-blues have made all-out efforts to persuade the public that the shooting was a political conspiracy directed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The blue camp contends that the incident not only helped Chen and Lu win sympathy votes, but also resulted in the activation of a national security mechanism, which allegedly prevented military and police personnel from voting the next day. Calling these the reasons for their loss, they incited their supporters and launched weeks of mass demonstrations.
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (
Lee's investigation ruled out both a professional assassination attempt and a short-distance shooting. Pan-blues are obligated to produce evidence if they insist on conspiracy theories. If they cannot do so, then no detective could resolve the case to their satisfaction, whether Henry Lee or Sherlock Holmes himself.
Controversies surrounding the presidential election are being resolved via such measures as criminal investigations and judicial recounting of the ballots within the system. The pan-blue demonstrations have gradually lost their rationale, resulting in street violence that has led to dissatisfaction all across society. Pan-blue candidates Lien Chan (
Lien and Soong should recognize these circumstances and resign as chairmen of the KMT and PFP while awaiting the results of the recounting by judicial authorities. It is time for them to return power to their parties, and to return calm to our society.
US$18.278 billion is a simple dollar figure; one that’s illustrative of the first Trump administration’s defense commitment to Taiwan. But what does Donald Trump care for money? During President Trump’s first term, the US defense department approved gross sales of “defense articles and services” to Taiwan of over US$18 billion. In September, the US-Taiwan Business Council compared Trump’s figure to the other four presidential administrations since 1993: President Clinton approved a total of US$8.702 billion from 1993 through 2000. President George W. Bush approved US$15.614 billion in eight years. This total would have been significantly greater had Taiwan’s Kuomintang-controlled Legislative Yuan been cooperative. During
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in recent days was the focus of the media due to his role in arranging a Chinese “student” group to visit Taiwan. While his team defends the visit as friendly, civilized and apolitical, the general impression is that it was a political stunt orchestrated as part of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda, as its members were mainly young communists or university graduates who speak of a future of a unified country. While Ma lived in Taiwan almost his entire life — except during his early childhood in Hong Kong and student years in the US —
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers on Monday unilaterally passed a preliminary review of proposed amendments to the Public Officers Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法) in just one minute, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, government officials and the media were locked out. The hasty and discourteous move — the doors of the Internal Administration Committee chamber were locked and sealed with plastic wrap before the preliminary review meeting began — was a great setback for Taiwan’s democracy. Without any legislative discussion or public witnesses, KMT Legislator Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩), the committee’s convener, began the meeting at 9am and announced passage of the
In response to a failure to understand the “good intentions” behind the use of the term “motherland,” a professor from China’s Fudan University recklessly claimed that Taiwan used to be a colony, so all it needs is a “good beating.” Such logic is risible. The Central Plains people in China were once colonized by the Mongolians, the Manchus and other foreign peoples — does that mean they also deserve a “good beating?” According to the professor, having been ruled by the Cheng Dynasty — named after its founder, Ming-loyalist Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功, also known as Koxinga) — as the Kingdom of Tungning,
RSS