KMT fails the Tibet test
We are once again faced with an incongruous Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that has run Taiwan for the past four years like a subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), protests to the contrary notwithstanding.
We need look no further than President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration’s oafish treatment of Tibetans and Uighurs and other oppressed peoples in China to see this. How else can the government justify its silence (and in some respect, approbation) in the face of genocide, if not because the KMT respects and admires China’s heavy-handed methods for dealing with dissent?
I can understand the failure of US President Barack Obama to stridently confront China over these issues as he should (although certainly not to excuse in the least the complete failure of a supposed Nobel laureate to lead the world as US president on these imperative and urgent issues), considering his current overly timid US policy on China.
However, what excuse can the KMT give, other than to proclaim that Tibet and Xinjiang are part of China and “splittism” and dissent are not acceptable?
How can Taiwan fulfill its supposed key role in the world of serving as an example to China of all that is good, democratic and free if the KMT does not confront China about its human rights violations and the CCP’s long term plans to eradicate Tibetan and Uighur culture, language and peoples? Ma’s insipid occasional statements about these things are neither convincing nor effective.
Does the KMT not understand that Tibet and Xinjiang, Falun Gong and Chinese dissidents and activists serve as reminders to Taiwan of what the CCP has in store for it down the road when the KMT negotiates its supposed (and false) peace with China?
Of course not. In fact, Ma has refused to differentiate himself from the CCP so much so that it appears that the KMT and CCP are one, and we can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins.
Why else would the KMT admire China so much? I suspect it is because the KMT accepts the CCP’s methods, and we might expect after the KMT’s unification with China — which is the heartfelt goal of the hardcore KMT members — a regression to the days of martial law and tyranny and the eradication of everything Taiwanese, just like the KMT’s brother, the CCP, has served up to the Chinese every day for the past 63 years.
Lee Long-hwa
New York
Stricter is not always better
I doubt the implementation of stricter adoption laws to prevent parents from regretting their adoption and selling children will work very well (“Stricter adoption laws enacted,” June 4, page 2).
It is suggested that many parents regret adopting when the adopted children do not meet their expectations.
The implementation of stricter laws seems to be a good idea. However, at the same time, it also makes it harder for parents to adopt children. If a couple want to adopt children, they need to take lots of courses and even pass some examinations. If they do not, they are forbidden from adopting. People who yearn to be parents but cannot pass the examinations are likely to use private means to achieve their goal. That is to say, they are likely to adopt illegally, or even to buy children. The market for selling children will prosper even more, which may lead to more problems.
In this case, the law not only fails to stop parents who adopt children through private channels from feeling regret, but it also makes an increasing number of people willing to take a risk and buy children.
The stricter law is well-intentioned. However, the difficulty of adopting may also lead some people to break the law. Therefore, I cannot be sure whether a stricter law will be better.
Clara Lai
Taipei
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