To understand the stark differences between China and Taiwan, you need look no further than the nearest newsstand.
In Taiwan's young democracy, you will find newspapers with an array of editorial positions covering the political spectrum. You will see articles accusing the nation's highest officials and most powerful magnates of corruption, lechery, vice and incompetence. You will see energetic and unruly activity that may be undisciplined and unprofessional, but nevertheless has all the hallmarks of a free press.
Go now to a newsstand in China.
You will find articles lauding the accomplishments of unelected bureaucrats. You will find pieces extolling the intricacies of official policies. You will find xenophobic rants aimed at inflaming nationalist sentiment. In short, you will find evidence of all that is frightening and detestable in a totalitarian regime.
Yesterday, that detestable regime sentenced a journalist to five years in prison for allegedly spying for Taiwan. His real crime, as everyone knows, was trying to write accurately about China.
Ching Cheong (
Since Ching was tried in secret, and no one knows what "evidence" was used to convict him, it is difficult to contest the case against him. But it is not difficult to see that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had an urgent and unambiguous reason to try to discredit Ching and stop his activities.
According to the CCP's mouthpiece news agency, Xinhua, China largely based its claim that Ching was a spy on "evidence" that he had met with members of a think tank -- which the reports described as a front for espionage -- when he was a reporter in Taiwan. Xinhua says that Ching took money from the think tank in exchange for providing "state secrets." There is no way to check the veracity of these claims, and it is unlikely that more details will be forthcoming.
Given the nature of the Chinese regime, it is irrelevant if Ching violated the law. The laws that Beijing applies to such matters are so sweeping that they could be applied to any journalist who writes about anything at any time.
Every so often, commentators and pundits will wax eloquent and talk about the "inevitable" slow shift toward an open, democratic society that they claim China is beginning to undergo. They point to critical blogs or articles that appear from time to time as evidence of this shift.
This ignores reality. Such criticisms appear because technology has changed, not because the nature of the Chinese regime has changed. A journalist in China can write honestly and critically for a short time, and these words will spread like wildfire on the Internet. But in the end, the plodding government goons will show up at the door, shut it all down and whisk the writer away.
Reporters Without Borders says that China has 32 journalists and 50 "Internet campaigners" in jail. Ching is just the latest in a long series of persecuted journalists. The CCP isn't changing.
Singapore Press Holdings Ltd, the firm that owns the Straits Times, has called for Beijing to release Ching because he has chronic health problems.
It isn't likely that support from the Taipei Times would add value to this effort in China's eyes, but we do call on the international community -- especially the US and the EU -- to increase pressure on China for its oppression of journalists and to push for Ching's release.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of