Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) has revealed further details of his role in the affair concerning alleged improper lobbying by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), saying that he met with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) twice to report on the case. He had no legal basis for reporting directly to Ma, and in so doing, he departed from the impartial and independent stance that the prosecutor-general should maintain.
Although prosecutors’ offices are subordinate to the Ministry of Justice, the minister of justice only has the power of administrative oversight over the prosecutorial system and has no jurisdiction over specific cases. Article 63-1, Paragraph 1 of the Organic Act of Courts (法院組織法) stipulates that the prosecutor-general has authority over all the prosecutors’ offices, and based on Article 64 of the same law and the principle of unity of prosecution, has the power to personally handle individual prosecutors’ cases or transfer a case to be investigated by another prosecutor.
This also means that the prosecutor-general has the supreme power of direction over the prosecution of crimes. It is clear how much power the prosecutor-general wields when one takes into account that the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID), which was established to combat corruption among high-ranking civil servants, falls under the direct control of the prosecutor-general.
In view of the great power enjoyed by the prosecutor-general, when the legislature amended the Organic Act of Courts in 2006, it added a regulation in Article 66, Paragraph 8, stipulating that the prosecutor-general is to be nominated by the president and approved by the legislature, and that they can only serve a four-year term and cannot serve consecutive terms.
This measure was introduced to restrain the power of the prosecutor-general and ensure the independent exercise of the power of prosecution.
Once in office, a prosecutor-general does not have to take orders from the president or the legislature with regard to the investigation and prosecution of crimes. This means that the prosecutor-general is not answerable to any superior official, and is only obliged to strictly abide by the law in exercising their powers.
In the current case that has aroused so much controversy, the SID started out by investigating corruption among judges, then branched out into investigating other cases that came to light in connection with the original case.
The SID started tapping an increasing number of people’s telephone lines, and even threatened the prosecutors handling certain cases. In failing to prevent the SID from abusing its powers in this way, Huang, as the nation’s top prosecution official, has failed in his duty to carry out appropriate oversight.
A even more questionable was his decision to report information about the investigation, which is supposed to be kept secret, to Ma.
This is a serious violation of the impartiality of the judicial system, and has given people the impression that the prosecution is serving political ends.
The prosecutor-general is supposed to maintain strict independence and impartiality, but Huang’s performance in relation to the suspected improper lobbying has strayed a long way from these principles and throws his legal expertise into doubt.
Considering the revelations of unlawful actions on his part, Huang should know what his next step should be. The proper thing for him to do now would be to resign and accept a judicial investigation into his actions.
Wu Ching-chin is an associate professor and chair of Aletheia University’s law department.
Translated by Julian Clegg
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
In China, competition is fierce, and in many cases suppliers do not get paid on time. Rather than improving, the situation appears to be deteriorating. BYD Co, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer by production volume, has gained notoriety for its harsh treatment of suppliers, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability. The case also highlights the decline of China’s business environment, and the growing risk of a cascading wave of corporate failures. BYD generally does not follow China’s Negotiable Instruments Law when settling payments with suppliers. Instead the company has created its own proprietary supply chain finance system called the “D-chain,” through which
RSS