Taiwan's representative to Singapore Hu Wei-jen (
Put aside incredulity that an esteemed institution like Harvard might have room for someone who casually violates his responsibilities. The main problem is that Hu has failed his basic duty by placing personal opinion above the national interest. Not only does this violate professional ethics, it is also embarrassing for the government and damaging to Taiwan's interests.
Moreover, his behavior sets a poor example for other diplomatic officials. He should have resigned a lot earlier if his political ideals were so incompatible with those of the elected government.
Hu's claims about his employment also don't mesh with the facts. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs told him in April that he was to be moved. During that time the ministry considered sending former chief of the general staff Lee Tien-yu (
Hu is the son of Army General Hu Tsung-nan (
But the DPP has treated him well. After the party came to power in 2000, Hu was allowed to remain deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council, and later appointed Taiwan's representative to Germany before transferring to Singapore.
This seems to mean nothing to Hu Wei-jen, whose actions were a deliberate attempt to humiliate the DPP government and thereby curry favor with the KMT -- presumably to improve his chances of acquiring a post of influence for himself if the KMT wins next year's presidential election.
Hu Wei-jen's behavior constitutes a serious breach of protocol. The ministry should do more than just mumble about "regretting" the incident.
After Hu Wei-jen returns to Taiwan, Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (
The interests of the country are more important than those of any individual or party. Demeaning a government, a country and its people is a line that no one in the foreign service may cross.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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