Last week a Chiayi restaurant caused a stir when it added a Sichuan dish to the menu that involves frying and serving live fish. Criticism was so sharp that the owner removed the dish from the menu. One customer had been so disturbed that he reported the restaurant to the authorities.
I appreciate that yinyang fish has caused such an outcry. But it is disappointing if human compassion only goes as far as cruelty that occurs in front of our eyes.
A friend of mine visited a zoo in the US and was horrified when she saw a young woman reach into a peacock cage and rip a feather out of a bird's tail. My friend, deeply upset, then realized the woman intended to yank another feather. She went up behind her as she waited for the hapless creature to wander within reach again. As the woman leaned further in to tug another feather, my friend took a firm grip of the woman's hair and gave it an unforgettable yank that left the feather-collector so mortified she ran from the scene without a word.
This same friend, passionate enough to pull a complete stranger's hair, has told me that she knows livestock are mistreated where she lives in the US, but that she doesn't want to know the details -- because then she won't be able to eat meat.
I take issue with her decision. Much worse abuse is occurring at industrialized farms, and we must be accountable for the behavior we support by funding those farms when we purchase their products. When a tornado hit a chicken farm in the US a few years ago, tens of thousands of chickens were left to starve to death in their cages because the corporation that owned it decided it wasn't cost-efficient to retrieve them from their cages, put them out of their misery or move them to another location. The case was well-documented by the Farm Sanctuary, a US-based non-governmental organization, and filmmakers.
Routine abuse of livestock is also well-documented. Cattle are beaten -- to the point any normal person would call sadistic -- simply for not moving fast enough from a transport vehicle to a pen. At egg farms, producing hens to lay eggs is part of the job, which entails allowing part of the eggs produced to hatch. Unfortunately, half of the hatched chicks are of the wrong sex. A large-scale chicken farm tosses out hundreds of male chicks per day, often throwing them live into huge garbage bins, where they are left to gradually suffocate as more chicks land on top.
As for cruelty to fish -- the topic of the day -- once they are pulled from the water, fish are often not killed on the spot to relieve them of suffering. They are left in piles to slowly asphyxiate, which can take up to four hours. In the UK, some fish farmers have called for change, calling it unacceptable to let tens of millions of fish suffocate each year.
This isn't necessarily an argument for veganism. Not everyone believes killing animals is wrong, but as society has reached a broad consensus that certain treatment constitutes cruelty, we should boycott livestock handlers who abuse animals and legislate standards that protect the dignity of animals.
Kudos to those whose complaints led this Chiayi restaurant to stop frying live fish. But it is irrational if the shock and outrage ends there. Try looking at how Taiwan's livestock are treated.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a writer based in Taipei.
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS