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
The return of US president-elect Donald Trump to the White House has injected a new wave of anxiety across the Taiwan Strait. For Taiwan, an island whose very survival depends on the delicate and strategic support from the US, Trump’s election victory raises a cascade of questions and fears about what lies ahead. His approach to international relations — grounded in transactional and unpredictable policies — poses unique risks to Taiwan’s stability, economic prosperity and geopolitical standing. Trump’s first term left a complicated legacy in the region. On the one hand, his administration ramped up arms sales to Taiwan and sanctioned
The Taiwanese have proven to be resilient in the face of disasters and they have resisted continuing attempts to subordinate Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Nonetheless, the Taiwanese can and should do more to become even more resilient and to be better prepared for resistance should the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) try to annex Taiwan. President William Lai (賴清德) argues that the Taiwanese should determine their own fate. This position continues the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) tradition of opposing the CCP’s annexation of Taiwan. Lai challenges the CCP’s narrative by stating that Taiwan is not subordinate to the
US president-elect Donald Trump is to return to the White House in January, but his second term would surely be different from the first. His Cabinet would not include former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former US national security adviser John Bolton, both outspoken supporters of Taiwan. Trump is expected to implement a transactionalist approach to Taiwan, including measures such as demanding that Taiwan pay a high “protection fee” or requiring that Taiwan’s military spending amount to at least 10 percent of its GDP. However, if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) invades Taiwan, it is doubtful that Trump would dispatch
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has been dubbed Taiwan’s “sacred mountain.” In the past few years, it has invested in the construction of fabs in the US, Japan and Europe, and has long been a world-leading super enterprise — a source of pride for Taiwanese. However, many erroneous news reports, some part of cognitive warfare campaigns, have appeared online, intentionally spreading the false idea that TSMC is not really a Taiwanese company. It is true that TSMC depositary receipts can be purchased on the US securities market, and the proportion of foreign investment in the company is high. However, this reflects the
RSS