Taiwanese fishing boats have long been menaced by armed vessels from the Philippines and Vietnam, with countless Taiwanese fishermen saying they have either been harassed or had their catch confiscated at gunpoint.
With life on the high seas hard as it is — given the physical and mental effort needed to cope with the uncertainty of the weather, as well as interference from Philippine and Vietnamese ships — imagine the added emotional burden Taiwanese fishermen carry knowing that they cannot count on their own government for protection or support.
“Just like this most recent incident with an armed Philippine ship, fishermen have always hoped to see ships from Taiwan’s navy sail to their rescue, but they have always been disappointed,” veteran fisherman Hsu Wen-piao (許文標) said, referring to the killing of Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成) last week by Philippine Coast Guard personnel,
Hsu’s depressing yet poignant statement not only offers a glimpse into the plight of the nation’s fishermen, but also highlights the sense of helplessness they feel as a result of having an incompetent government which lacks the backbone to stick up for its people.
One may recall an incident on Jan. 15, 2011, in which a South Korean-operated cargo ship and its 21 crewmembers were hijacked by pirates in the Arabian Sea. A week later, after then-South Korean president Lee Myung-bak instructed a naval destroyer on patrol in the Gulf of Aden to give chase and take “all possible measures” to save the crew, South Korean Navy commandos stormed the seized ship, rescued all the crew and killed eight pirates.
The South Korean government’s daring rescue operation not only showed it had the strength of mind and resources to protect its citizens, but also sent a loud message that Seoul would look after its own.
By contrast, when Taiwanese fishing boats have reported attacks by pirates — once in 2007, another in 2009 and yet another in October 2010 — the role played by the Taiwanese government was pathetic to say the least.
Despite the government discussing dispatching navy warships to protect fishing boats from pirates, instead of taking direct action, Taipei left victims of hijacking to seek outside assistance when negotiating ransom demands.
In light of the frequent cases of harassment reported by Taiwanese fishing boats operating close to Taiwan proper, the government, rather than talking up far-fetched plans to send warships to patrol far-flung seas, could better demonstrate its willpower and ability to protect Taiwanese fishermen if it can demonstrate that it could do its job closer to home. For example, in the overlapping parts of the exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines that extend up to 200 nautical miles (370km) from the nation’s coastline.
A government is responsible for protecting its people’s lives and property, and it is important to set precedents to let other nations know how determined — or not — it is to protect its people’s rights and uphold its national dignity.
If the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is unable to achieve a satisfactory outcome in its dealings with the Philippines over Hung’s death, a sad precedent would be set that would be tantamount to broadcasting to the world how spineless the Taiwanese government is in protecting its people.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) sits down with US President Donald Trump in Beijing on Thursday next week, Xi is unlikely to demand a dramatic public betrayal of Taiwan. He does not need to. Beijing’s preferred victory is smaller, quieter and in some ways far more dangerous: a subtle shift in American wording that appears technical, but carries major strategic meaning. The ask is simple: replace the longstanding US formulation that Washington “does not support Taiwan independence” with a harder one — that Washington “opposes” Taiwan independence. One word changes; a deterrence structure built over decades begins to shift.
Taipei is facing a severe rat infestation, and the city government is reportedly considering large-scale use of rodenticides as its primary control measure. However, this move could trigger an ecological disaster, including mass deaths of birds of prey. In the past, black kites, relatives of eagles, took more than three decades to return to the skies above the Taipei Basin. Taiwan’s black kite population was nearly wiped out by the combined effects of habitat destruction, pesticides and rodenticides. By 1992, fewer than 200 black kites remained on the island. Fortunately, thanks to more than 30 years of collective effort to preserve their remaining
After Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing, most headlines referred to her as the leader of the opposition in Taiwan. Is she really, though? Being the chairwoman of the KMT does not automatically translate into being the leader of the opposition in the sense that most foreign readers would understand it. “Leader of the opposition” is a very British term. It applies to the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, and to some extent, to other democracies. If you look at the UK right now, Conservative Party head Kemi Badenoch is
A Pale View of Hills, a movie released last year, follows the story of a Japanese woman from Nagasaki who moved to Britain in the 1950s with her British husband and daughter from a previous marriage. The daughter was born at a time when memories of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki during World War II and anxiety over the effects of nuclear radiation still haunted the community. It is a reflection on the legacy of the local and national trauma of the bombing that ended the period of Japanese militarism. A central theme of the movie is the need, at
RSS