Just when you thought the government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had done all it can to discredit and besmirch the reputation of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), out comes a new story in which the Ministry of Justice is considering stripping Chen of an honorary medal he received as president.
The Presidential Office says the ministry is mulling the legalities involved with stripping the imprisoned ex-president of the Order of Brilliant Jade with Grand Cordon, the Republic of China’s equivalent of the US Medal of Honor, and which is given solely to incumbent presidents or bestowed on heads of state of diplomatic allies.
Chen is down, and like a schoolyard bully, Ma wants to kick him. He wants to continue to rub Chen’s fall from power in his face, as much as he can, for as long as he can, until the former president is broken mentally and physically. These constant prosecutions and moves to discredit anything Chen or his family has ever done constitute a form of slow torture.
The Presidential Office says it is acting on behalf of the public, which wants the medal retrieved from Chen because he is now in prison. However, this is a lame excuse that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Ma government can use anytime they want to do something in their own interest — all they must do is gesture to the mob and say it is the will of the public, before they go about their own business.
The truth is that the Ma government is unpopular — its policies are weak and even its friends are losing their motivation to support it. Ma’s poll ratings are so low that it is doubtful he would be able to beat even the most junior Democratic Progressive Party official in an election at this point.
However, when Ma feels the heat, he always has his favorite whipping boy to turn to — just wheel out the big bad Chen and make a further example of him for the public to gawk at, and all will be well, right, Ma?
The problem is, the public is a lot smarter than Ma gives it credit for. People realize the government is using Chen to distract attention away from its own inept policies and corruption scandals. They realize Ma and the KMT have a vendetta against Chen and will likely not stop until the former president dies in jail. They realize that this government is just as dirty as any that has sat in the Presidential Office. The public has only to look at disgraced former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世), and the slow pace at which prosecutors are looking into his case, and they can realize that this is just the tip of the Ma government’s corrupt iceberg.
However, the worst thing about this latest case of Chen bashing is just how petty it is. Ma is unable to find more cases of possible corruption involving Chen, Chen’s family, Chen’s former officials or Chen’s friends, so he had to resort to something as small-minded as stripping him of former honors. What next? Will Ma now turn to Chen’s elementary school report cards and tell the public that he cheated on his exams? Will Ma seek to have Chen’s high-school graduation annulled?
However, it is all for nothing, because no matter how hard Ma works to make Chen look bad, the former president will never look as bad as Ma.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
For Taiwan, the ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets are a warning signal: When a major power stretches the boundaries of self-defense, smaller states feel the tremors first. Taiwan’s security rests on two pillars: US deterrence and the credibility of international law. The first deters coercion from China. The second legitimizes Taiwan’s place in the international community. One is material. The other is moral. Both are indispensable. Under the UN Charter, force is lawful only in response to an armed attack or with UN Security Council authorization. Even pre-emptive self-defense — long debated — requires a demonstrably imminent
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said on Monday that it would be announcing its mayoral nominees for New Taipei City, Yilan County and Chiayi City on March 11, after which it would begin talks with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to field joint opposition candidates. The KMT would likely support Deputy Taipei Mayor Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) as its candidate for New Taipei City. The TPP is fielding its chairman, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), for New Taipei City mayor, after Huang had officially announced his candidacy in December last year. Speaking in a radio program, Huang was asked whether he would join Lee’s
RSS