Two topical events on opposite sides of the Taiwan Strait are of particular educational value to the public.
The first was in Taiwan: Vice President Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) daughter, Wu Tzu-an (吳子安), discovered that her son’s passport was valid for less than six months when she and her family were about to pass through customs at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ branch office at the airport renewed the passport at the last minute and an hour later the family left the country. The ministry staff at the airport have been accused of granting special privileges to Wu’s daughter.
Wu later said that he had been unaware of the incident at the time. He also said that the service was not a special privilege because it has been in place for some time; it was just a matter of most people not knowing how to apply for documents in those circumstances.
However, many Internet users who have had similar applications denied at the airport have said that this service is not provided to everyone, because the foreign ministry’s regulations include an annotation in red saying that its office at Taoyuan airport “does not accept applications for passports, visas or legalization documents from citizens at the counter,” making it impossible to apply for the service Wu’s daughter received.
In order to calm things down and to help its senior officials out, the ministry had to change its regulations to offer the service publicly. Now, “a person who must leave the country within 12 hours and has proof of flight and reservation” can contact the consular service at Taoyuan airport and ask for help.
While granting special privileges is bad, transforming it to a universal privilege is good, because it is a happy resolution to an obvious mistake.
The second event is taking place in China. The trial of disgraced politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has sparked interest in China and internationally. Although the Chinese government is not broadcasting the trial on TV, it does over the Internet, allowing Chinese to follow the trial live. It is the most politically explosive trial in China since that of the Gang of Four in the late 1970s.
It is China, so trials of top political leaders are only handed to courts for a verdict after the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) leadership and disciplinary committee have had their say. After they have decided the direction the case should take and the penalty, all that the court needs to do is follow instructions — there is no chance that a court will find a defendant not guilty after the CCP has decided on a stiff sentence.
The court’s treatment of Bo has therefore been surprising to many people. When the bailiff says something and the judge strikes the gavel, the defendant is usually frightened to death. The difference in the Bo trial is striking, as the judge, prosecutors and bailiffs have treated Bo with a degree of politeness and respect. Bo even thanked the court for the gracious treatment he received.
Such treatment is normal in a democracy, but in China it is a special privilege. Regardless of what sentence Bo gets, the verdict has more to do with politics than with the law. Still, the Bo case has great value to China — it can educate Chinese on how the judicial system works. Chinese have now seen what rights they are allowed in court and what treatment they should expect. A lesson on the rule of law and human rights is the unexpected result of the Bo trial.
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
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
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs