When law enforcement officers and possibly plain-clothed national security agents broke into a room occupied by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taichung City councilors at Taipei’s Grand Hotel without a warrant on Nov. 3 last year, many shrugged it off as an isolated incident.
When police ordered the closing of the Sunrise Records music store in Taipei during Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) visit last year, there were reports of people being harassed and mistreated by police.
When an 18 year-old student was taken away by police, questioned for half an hour and had his fingerprints taken on March 12 for shouting “Step down” at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), many dismissed it as a one-off incident.
They also laughed off concerns of a “return of the White Terror era” when media reported that a family member of a 228 Incident victim was questioned by police over her plans for taking part in a memorial.
People easily and quickly dismissed these incidents as isolated cases. But how many “isolated” cases must there be before alarm bells start ringing about the possibility of autocratic governance returning to Taiwan?
At a press conference on Monday, DPP Taipei City councilors Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) and Yen Sheng-kuan (顏聖冠) alleged the city’s Department of Police had sent two officers to a private gathering organized by the Taiwan Blogger Association on Saturday. The officers then asked the participants to show their IDs and provide them with their cellphone numbers.
An eyewitness said two officers informed them that their superiors wanted to know who was taking part in the gathering, what they were doing and whether all the participants were bloggers.
What’s happening to Taiwan? Since when do ordinary citizens have to provide police with information about private gatherings?
In response to the Taipei City councilors’ questions, the director of the police department’s security office, Tsai Wan-lai (蔡萬來), said he was not clear about the details of the incident, adding that it could have resulted from “the young policemen’s lack of skills.” Any personnel found guilty of misconduct would be disciplined accordingly, he said.
What exactly did Tsai mean by “lack of skills”? Does his explanation mean that the officers in question were not disciplined for violating civil rights but for being clumsy?
Over the past years, the image of the nation’s law enforcement officers has improved greatly. However, much has changed since Chen’s visit in November, leading to a tarnishing of the police’s reputation and a growing perception of officers being arrogant and abusive.
Despite this evidence, some may still dismiss these incidents as isolated cases and not indicative of an erosion of democracy in Taiwan.
If this mindset persists and no action is taken to prevent such incidents from taking place, one day people could find their blogs being censored and the contents of their iPods being scrutinized.
By then it would be much more difficult to stand up, speak out and take measures to redress the gradual weakening of civil liberties.
China’s supreme objective in a war across the Taiwan Strait is to incorporate Taiwan as a province of the People’s Republic. It follows, therefore, that international recognition of Taiwan’s de jure independence is a consummation that China’s leaders devoutly wish to avoid. By the same token, an American strategy to deny China that objective would complicate Beijing’s calculus and deter large-scale hostilities. For decades, China has cautioned “independence means war.” The opposite is also true: “war means independence.” A comprehensive strategy of denial would guarantee an outcome of de jure independence for Taiwan in the event of Chinese invasion or
A recent Taipei Times editorial (“A targeted bilingual policy,” March 12, page 8) questioned how the Ministry of Education can justify spending NT$151 million (US$4.74 million) when the spotlighted achievements are English speech competitions and campus tours. It is a fair question, but it focuses on the wrong issue. The problem is not last year’s outcomes failing to meet the bilingual education vision; the issue is that the ministry has abandoned the program that originally justified such a large expenditure. In the early years of Bilingual 2030, the ministry’s K-12 Administration promoted the Bilingual Instruction in Select Domains Program (部分領域課程雙語教學實施計畫).
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) earlier this month said it is necessary for her to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and it would be a “huge boost” to the party’s local election results in November, but many KMT members have expressed different opinions, indicating a struggle between different groups in the party. Since Cheng was elected as party chairwoman in October last year, she has repeatedly expressed support for increased exchanges with China, saying that it would bring peace and prosperity to Taiwan, and that a meeting with Xi in Beijing takes priority over meeting
Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman for maritime affairs Rogelio Villanueva on Monday said that Manila’s claims in the South China Sea are backed by international law. Villanueva was responding to a social media post by the Chinese embassy alleging that a former Philippine ambassador in 1990 had written a letter to a German radio operator stating that the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) did not fall within Manila’s territory. “Sovereignty is not merely claimed, it is exercised,” Villanueva said. The Philippines won a landmark case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 that found China’s sweeping claim of sovereignty in
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