CCP silent on own abuses
On Tuesday last week, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) during a daily news briefing said that President William Lai (賴清德) had directed the courts to detain and hold incommunicado Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) for the former Taipei mayor’s alleged involvement in the Core Pacific City redevelopment project.
Chen said that Lai was wielding the court as a personal weapon and implementing a “green terror,” adding that “Taiwanese ‘regional leader’ Lai is committing outrages and will be ousted by the will of the people.”
When I read Chen’s comments, I could not decide whether to laugh or cry. There is no credibility to anything the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) says, as China has no independent judiciary.
Ever since Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) took over the CCP chairmanship, numerous news stories have been published about Chinese officials disappearing without trace and influential business people committing suicide.
Last year, 25 high-ranking CCP officials and military officers “disappeared,” including former Chinese minister of foreign affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) and former Chinese minister of national defense Li Shangfu (李尚福).
In 2020, 260 officials and powerful people in China have turned up dead or were incarcerated while in office, including former China Railways Construction Group chairman Chen Fenjian (陳奮健), who apparently fell to his death from a high-rise building that same year.
Ko’s detention is a legal matter that was initiated based on evidence, with the independent Control Yuan carrying out the due legal process. The case is being prosecuted by a separate court and prosecutors’ office. Lawyers are deliberating arguments and Ko’s attorney is defending him.
Taiwan’s legal system provides guaranteed protections and judicial fairness. Moreover, the case has generated plenty of public discussion and commentary, including with the fourth estate — a free media — covering this and Ko’s other cases.
What fair and open legal processes and supervision of China’s “legal system” did those rich and powerful CCP and business elites have before they were dispensed with? Did they receive the benefits of a free and democratic system like Taiwan’s?
Were their cases evaluated based on legitimate evidence presented in a court of law? Does China’s judiciary ever make rulings independent of the CCP? Do Chinese lawyers work on the behalf of their clients or the government?
Is there honest and transparent social commentary and a free and open media landscape covering legal proceedings, or is it only the CCP that decides people’s fates?
The CCP is behind the wheel of China’s “red terror.”
Does the TAO even understand the latest public opinion polls of Taiwanese about the Core Pacific City case, such as a Next Media poll from last week that showed that up to 77.3 percent of respondents “definitely do not believe” Ko is innocent? Taiwanese are quite clear where they stand on Ko.
It is a shame that China does not have any organizations that are allowed to poll Chinese and ask them if they trust Xi, and if not, why? Is it because China’s red terror has stripped away public freedoms, and, at worst, taken lives?
Who would be brave enough to conduct such a poll? Who would be brave enough to be like a Taiwanese and say what is really on their mind?
Hsin-na
Taipei
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
Next week, the nation is to celebrate the Lunar New Year break. Unfortunately, cold winds are a-blowing, literally and figuratively. The Central Weather Administration has warned of an approaching cold air mass, while obstinate winds of chaos eddy around the Legislative Yuan. English theologian Thomas Fuller optimistically pointed out in 1650 that “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” We could paraphrase by saying the coldest days are just before the renewed hope of spring. However, one must temper any optimism about the damage being done in the legislature by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), under
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
To our readers: Due to the Lunar New Year holiday, from Sunday, Jan. 26, through Sunday, Feb. 2, the Taipei Times will have a reduced format without our regular editorials and opinion pieces. From Tuesday to Saturday the paper will not be delivered to subscribers, but will be available for purchase at convenience stores. Subscribers will receive the editions they missed once normal distribution resumes on Sunday, Feb. 2. The paper returns to its usual format on Monday, Feb. 3, when our regular editorials and opinion pieces will also be resumed.
RSS