Prosecuting Liu is a mistake
Prosecutors claimed Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Kansas City Director Jacqueline Liu’s (劉姍姍) office maintains unofficial relations between the US and Taiwan and is similar to a consulate, although the US does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state.
I do not agree with the US Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri.
If the US can prosecute a high--ranking representative of Taiwan, then representatives of the American Institute in Taiwan would not be immune from prosecution in Taiwan.
Under Title 28, Section 1602 of the US Code, Congress finds that the determination by US courts of the claims of foreign states to immunity from the jurisdiction of such courts would serve the interests of justice and would protect the rights of both foreign states and litigants in US courts, except if a foreign sovereign state is under section 1605 and section 1607.
I do not think that it is in our best interest to prosecute a high-ranking representative of foreign sovereign state, just because we do not recognize it as a foreign sovereign state.
Meanwhile, I recommend that Taiwan find an attorney or attorneys familiar with employment fraud for Liu. US attorneys have a burden of proof that requires that the prosecution demonstrate the defendant’s guilt for each element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt to convict the defendant.
Have I missed something here? Why did I not hear anything about Ms Liu’s attorney when US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Beth Phillips announced the charge in federal court of fraud in foreign labor contracting when obtaining a Philippine servant for her residence.
The Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution provides that no person shall be deprived of life or liberty without due process of law.
Jennie Chiang
Boyertown, Pennsylvania
Taiwan is not for sale
Paul Kane must be insane when he suggests the US sell out Taiwan to China (“‘New York Times’ op-ed calls on US to sell out Taiwan,” Nov. 13, page 1).
Kane wants to sell out 23 million Taiwanese and the beautiful, strategic island of Taiwan to write off US$1.14 trillion of US debt held by China.
This is equivalent to committing human trafficking at less than US$50,000 per person.
Kane should state openly whether or not he is willing to sell his children at this price or any other price. He should also apologize formally to all Taiwanese.
It is a heinous crime to sell a country to another country. How could Kane, as a former international security fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, have such an inhuman idea?
He embarasses himself as an academic, Harvard as a reputable university and the US as a democratic world leader.
Taiwanese cherish freedom and democracy after sacrificing tens of thousands of lives and suffering from the world’s longest Martial Law period — 38 years.
They could never imagine that someday the US would betray them and put them under communist totalitarianism. Let us hope that such a nightmare will never fall upon the Taiwanese.
Taiwan was ceded permanently to Japan in 1895 and given up by Japan without specifying a beneficiary in the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951. Taiwan has been treated like booty.
Taiwan has also been betrayed, as shown in the book and movie Formosa Betrayed. Taiwan does not need to be betrayed again. The US and China should give Taiwanese a break and free Taiwan from their “one China” principle.
Since the status of Taiwan has been undetermined for 60 years, it is time for Taiwanese to decide their own future.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
Ursula K. le Guin in The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas proposed a thought experiment of a utopian city whose existence depended on one child held captive in a dungeon. When taken to extremes, Le Guin suggests, utilitarian logic violates some of our deepest moral intuitions. Even the greatest social goods — peace, harmony and prosperity — are not worth the sacrifice of an innocent person. Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), since leaving office, has lived an odyssey that has brought him to lows like Le Guin’s dungeon. From late 2008 to 2015 he was imprisoned, much of this
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and