Even though the #MeToo movement was started by US activist Tarana Burke in 2006, Taiwan’s political world has just begun to see its first #MeToo reckoning.
The #MeToo movement gained traction when a former gymnast accused a former coach of sexual assault while she was a junior-high student. The 2017 suicide of Lin Yi-han (林奕含), who turned her experience of alleged sexual assault by a cram school teacher into a novel, also caused an uproar.
The two incidents have encouraged other people to reveal misconduct by teachers and coaches, sparking reform in sports and education.
Now it is the political arena’s turn to undergo “cleansing”: Former Hualien County commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been accused of sexual harassment; a whistle-blower surnamed Chen (陳) has accused her supervisor and former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Youth Wing leader Tsai Mu-lin (蔡沐霖) of helping cover up sexual abuse claims she made against a colleague named Chen Yu-hao (陳右豪); exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) has denied allegations of sexual assault leveled against him by two men.
In response, different parties have unanimously condemned sexual harassment and vowed to mete out penalties if the accusations proved to be true.
Even though Taiwan ranks sixth among 163 countries in overall gender equality, it still has a long way to go before realizing true gender equality. One of the obstacles is social values. As Taiwan is deeply rooted in Confucianism, people tend to hold authority figures, such as coaches and teachers, in high esteem, which explains why people are afraid to seek help.
As Confucianism underscores social order through the encouragement of virtues such as loyalty and respect for elderly people, it has inadvertently bolstered male chauvinism. In a highly patriarchal and chauvinistic society, victims of abuse might be afraid that they would be punished, ridiculed or stigmatized if they come forward.
However, the younger generation has replaced Confucianism with a new set of values, such as Taiwanese independence, opposing the death penalty, and upholding gender equality and LGBT rights. The mindset of the women who lived through these movements is different from the previous generation — and they refuse to put up with grievances such as sexual harassment.
The higher echelons in the DPP were sorely mistaken when they thought they could sweep the complaints under the carpet with the traditional mindset of a patriarchal society. The older generation might have thought it better to stay silent for the “greater good,” but not the new generation.
However, as Taiwan’s #MeToo movement has coincided with the election season, there are concerns that it could be used by political parties to trade accusations, and fail to trigger far-reaching reforms.
To bring real change to the workplace, political parties should implement new measures, instead of just pointing the finger at others, such as establishing a direct channel for people to report wrongdoing, implementing a zero-tolerance policy against sexual harassment and revising party rules and regulations.
Most importantly, society must realize that every person has a responsibility to help people call out perpetrators, instead of pouring cold water over their pleas or indulge in victim-blaming.
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
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
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS