The blue and white political camps have been trying hard to gain power and to achieve their goals, they have used every means to attack the ruling party, including unwarranted smears and low-quality fake news.
Only by punishing such behavior with the judicial system can turbulence as a result of political conflict be avoided.
The use of political smears and fake news to attack political opponents has a long history. With the advent of social media — which means false reports can be generated cheaply and spread easily — their influence has become even more considerable.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), without any evidence, accused President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of profiteering from Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) accused J&V Energy Technology Co chairman Lai Chin-lin (賴勁麟), a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator, of monopolizing Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) green energy projects.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) spread rumors that imported eggs would cause cancer, causing panic.
Online commentator Lin Yu-hong (林裕紘), who is related to the Chang family — a political power in Yunlin County — and runs the “Lin Bay Hao You” (“Lin Bay 好油”) Facebook page, said that the imported eggs were mostly rotten because he had found that a few locally produced eggs had gone bad.
A KMT employee, Hsu Che-pin (許哲賓), was detained, accused of helping Lin fabricate death threats.
Disseminating smears on social media has become so serious that it has hindered the development of Taiwan’s industries.
Those who spread rumors do not have to pay a price. After Hsu Chiao-hsin’s rumor was debunked, she pretended nothing had happened and started another round. Unscrupulous politicians and faction leaders employed this strategy, which led to former Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing general manager Wu Yin-ning (吳音寧) and former minister of agriculture Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) losing their jobs.
Others can benefit by stockpiling goods, creating social panic and elevating prices to boost their profits.
If this chaos is to be stopped, wrongdoers must be punished and damages must be paid.
In the US judicial system, in addition to compensation, punitive damages are awarded by a court to punish defendants whose conduct is considered negligent or intentional. The purpose is to stop them from reusing the same tricks. The amount of the payment is usually considerable, hence it is an effective preventive measure.
When Lin fabricated a story that his family had received death threats, he was supported by former New Power Party (NPP) legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), former National Taiwan University president Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) and politicians from the blue and white camps. As the saying goes, “three men talking makes a tiger, and a rumor repeated enough becomes true.”
After they were found out, all they had to do was delete their social media posts and apologize. This has become standard operating procedure of the blue and white camps, and it can only be stopped by heavy penalties.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications showed how to do it when dealing with Taiwan’s “pedestrian hell.” Many drivers have changed their behavior after the maximum fine for failing to yield to pedestrians was increased to NT$6,000. The threat of heavy fines can be effective and they must be applied when necessary.
Robert Wang is a writer.
Translated by Emma Liu
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
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017