The opposition parties are living in the past.
How else can one explain the resurrection of the 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee on Tuesday? It is more than two years since the presidential election, and the pan-blues have put Taiwan right back where it started.
No one has ever presented a shred of credible evidence to prove that the shooting was a conspiracy. This is such a vital fact that it warrants repetition: No one has presented evidence of a conspiracy.
Not one document. Not one fiber of fabric. Not a single hair. Not one strand of DNA. No film footage. No still photographs. No weapons. No testimony from inside sources. No tape recordings. No fingerprints. No eyewitnesses. Nothing.
Nothing at all to indicate that the elected president of this democratic state, flawed as it may be, was involved in a conspiracy that would have required dozens, if not hundreds, of participants to execute properly -- with no certainty of what effect it would have on the election once it had been carried out.
That's another point that should be raised twice to emphasize its importance: If President Chen Shui-bian (
If he wanted to make sure he stayed in power, why didn't he just declare martial law? Ban the main opposition leaders from running? Stuff the ballot boxes? He could have done hundreds of things that would have guaranteed the result, while giving the appearance of a democratic contest.
But according to the conspiracy-peddlers, he didn't. He had someone give him a flesh wound with a homemade pistol, then covered it up and waited a day for the poll results.
It is insulting to one's intelligence to be asked to believe that.
Furthermore, evidence that the shooting was carried out by a lone nutcase is legion. The police collected bullet fragments. Shell casings. Video footage. Eyewitness testimony. Forensic analysis by a host of experts. The police spent months painstakingly gathering evidence and tracking down leads. They matched clothing. They positively identified the shooter. They found the man who sold him a homemade gun. They gathered testimony from people who knew the shooter. Even his family said he had done it -- until deciding a year later to change their story, with the help of a prominent pan-blue figure.
And what about the simple, inescapable logic of self-interest? Is there no one, inside or outside of the president's circle of trust, who would have something to gain by exposing a conspiracy that would rock the very foundations of this country's political system?
Are the thousands of broadcast and print journalists in on the plot as well? Are they all Chen supporters? Clearly not. So were they all bought off?
Why did the pan-blue camp's first unconstitutional committee not find any conclusive proof of their claim? They submitted a voluminous report that was a cold fish even among pan-blue supporters. It had charts. It had diagrams. It had speculation. It had lots of pages. But it had no evidence.
So was the committee in on the conspiracy too?
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is again showing its disregard for the rule of law, merely because it can't live with the reality that it isn't in power.
KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
The public is sick of sham conspiracy theories.
It's time for the pan-blues to put up or shut up.
There is much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and is learning lessons for a future war against Taiwan. Until now, the CCP has claimed that they have not sent PLA personnel to support Russian aggression. On 18 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy announced that the CCP is supplying war supplies such as gunpowder, artillery, and weapons subcomponents to Russia. When Zelinskiy announced on 9 April that the Ukrainian Army had captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russians on the front line with details
On a quiet lane in Taipei’s central Daan District (大安), an otherwise unremarkable high-rise is marked by a police guard and a tawdry A4 printout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating an “embassy area.” Keen observers would see the emblem of the Holy See, one of Taiwan’s 12 so-called “diplomatic allies.” Unlike Taipei’s other embassies and quasi-consulates, no national flag flies there, nor is there a plaque indicating what country’s embassy this is. Visitors hoping to sign a condolence book for the late Pope Francis would instead have to visit the Italian Trade Office, adjacent to Taipei 101. The death of
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), joined by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), held a protest on Saturday on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei. They were essentially standing for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is anxious about the mass recall campaign against KMT legislators. President William Lai (賴清德) said that if the opposition parties truly wanted to fight dictatorship, they should do so in Tiananmen Square — and at the very least, refrain from groveling to Chinese officials during their visits to China, alluding to meetings between KMT members and Chinese authorities. Now that China has been defined as a foreign hostile force,
RSS