Roson (羅森), a renowned Taiwan-born wuxia (“martial arts and chivalry”) novelist who shot to fame in Taiwan for having mature content in his works, has moved his career to China several years ago. He settled down in Zhuhai in Guangdong Province while managing a novel Web site for years.
He was arrested earlier this year and given a 12-year sentence for “producing, selling or disseminating obscene articles for profit,” according to online reports.
News of him serving a sentence first appeared on Chinese gaming Web site NGA and shortly after, the news spread to Professional Technology Temple’s gaming bulletin board.
Rumors had it that Roson’s family tried to contact the Straits Exchange Foundation for assistance.
Finally, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office acknowledged that Roson had indeed been arrested in China, but whether he had been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment has not been confirmed.
Roson was never shy about showing his pro-China sentiments when he was in Taiwan. He used to make blatant remarks such as “if the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] comes, I surrender, period.”
When a 25-year-old Houston Rockets fan in China threatened to burn the Chinese flag in protest of a dispute between Beijing and the NBA team and was put behind bars hours later, Roston showed no sympathy for the fan and even said the penalty “serves him right.”
After news of Roson’s arrest went viral, most Taiwanese Internet users felt no pity for him, using his own words, “serves him right,” to deridingly describe his situation.
From Roson’s case, the public should know that whenever one literally trespasses in sensitive areas controlled by China, it would be futile to attempt sycophancy or bootlicking. China is a country governed by a party rather than by rule of law. Unlike other countries, Chinese legal governance is often volatile and unstable, and worse, it is often manipulated at will to work in line with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) own legal interpretations.
As a result, detrimental legislation has been put in place, and the purpose is to regulate press freedom. The CCP used to turn a blind eye to some shady profit-making behaviors, but it started to clamp down on those activities when the CCP intended to “tighten” its ideology.
Local governments would also confiscate personal assets and property to make up for financial shortfalls. After all, the Chinese government has always enjoyed a good “harvest” of “Chinese leeks.”
Roson’s current plight is a result of China’s malicious regime and the avarice and rapaciousness of others.
In view of next month’s presidential election, Taiwanese should make their picks carefully and use their ballots to protect their democracy. This would safeguard an imperfect yet free way of life.
If they choose to cast their ballots for a pro-China party and hence push Taiwan toward becoming a territory controlled by China — just like what happened to Hong Kong — it is highly likely that everyone would become the next Roson, and by then, it would be too late.
Roger Wu works in the service industry and is a part-time freelance writer.
Translated by Rita Wang
US aerospace company Boeing Co has in recent years been involved in numerous safety incidents, including crashes of its 737 Max airliners, which have caused widespread concern about the company’s safety record. It has recently come to light that titanium jet engine parts used by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus SE were sold with falsified documentation. The source of the titanium used in these parts has been traced back to an unknown Chinese company. It is clear that China is trying to sneak questionable titanium materials into the supply chain and use any ensuing problems as an opportunity to
It’s not every month that the US Department of State sends two deputy assistant secretary-level officials to Taiwan, together. Its rarer still that such senior State Department policy officers, once on the ground in Taipei, make a point of huddling with fellow diplomats from “like-minded” NATO, ANZUS and Japanese governments to coordinate their multilateral Taiwan policies. The State Department issued a press release on June 22 admitting that the two American “representatives” had “hosted consultations in Taipei” with their counterparts from the “Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” The consultations were blandly dubbed the “US-Taiwan Working Group on International Organizations.” The State
The Chinese Supreme People’s Court and other government agencies released new legal guidelines criminalizing “Taiwan independence diehard separatists.” While mostly symbolic — the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never had jurisdiction over Taiwan — Tamkang University Graduate Institute of China Studies associate professor Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), an expert on cross-strait relations, said: “They aim to explain domestically how they are countering ‘Taiwan independence,’ they aim to declare internationally their claimed jurisdiction over Taiwan and they aim to deter Taiwanese.” Analysts do not know for sure why Beijing is propagating these guidelines now. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), deciphering the
Many local news media last week reported that COVID-19 is back, citing doctors’ observations and the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) statistics. The CDC said that cases would peak this month and urged people to take preventive measures. Although COVID-19 has never been eliminated, it has become more manageable, and restrictions were dropped, enabling people to return to their normal way of life due to decreasing hospitalizations and deaths. In Taiwan, mandatory reporting of confirmed cases and home isolation ended in March last year, while the mask mandate at hospitals and healthcare facilities stopped in May. However, the CDC last week said the number