The diplomatic furor that erupted this week in New York over the arrest of Indian deputy consul-general Devyani Khobragade brought back memories of the Jacqueline Liu (劉姍姍) case. Khobragade was arrested in New York City on Dec. 12, accused of submitting false documents for a housekeeper to work in the US and paying her well below the minimum wage. She was arrested by the US Marshals Service, reportedly after dropping her daughter off at school, strip-searched and detained. She pleaded not guilty and was released on bail several hours later. Her arrest has become a cause celebre in India, triggering official protests from New Delhi, street demonstrations, retaliatory measures against the US embassy and its diplomatic personnel and even calls for the housekeeper to be arrested.
Liu, the then-director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Kansas, was arrested on Nov. 11, 2010, accused of fraudulently entering into contracts with two Filipinas brought to the US to work for her, paying them significantly less than the contract stated and forcing them to work excessive hours. She was arrested by FBI agents when leaving a restroom in the building that housed the TECO office, read her rights and handcuffed. Her arrest and treatment was protested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which demanded her immediate release. Officials from the American Institute in Taiwan were called in to receive a protest.
Liu and Khobragade were arrested on similar charges, but the difference in the fallout from their cases is interesting. While Khobragade was granted bail, Liu was kept behind bars because she was considered a flight risk. Khobragade’s arrest received international coverage. Liu’s did not. The US has been scrambling to protect its relationship with New Delhi, with a telephone call by US State Department No. 3 Wendy Sherman and US Secretary of State John Kerry expressing regret over the incident. Taiwan did not receive such messages. The focus in India has been defending Khobragade rather than the charges she is facing. There have even been calls in India for the housekeeper to be arrested. Liu ended up pleading guilty as part of a plea arrangement, ordered to pay restitution to the two housekeepers and was deported from the US. The Khobragade case is ongoing, yet Khobragade’s arrest shows that Liu’s treatment was not related to a lack of official diplomatic status in the US. Taiwan also ended up benefiting — in February this year, Taipei and Washington signed an agreement giving Taiwanese diplomats status “similar to” that given to envoys from countries with which Washington has diplomatic relations. However, so much attention has been focused on diplomatic privileges in both cases that the rights of migrant workers to be treated legally, fairly and with respect has been overshadowed.
Migrant workers are faced with abusive treatment worldwide. They often pay exorbitant amounts in fees to brokers and labor agencies to get a job. Many are forced to work in abysmal, even life-threatening conditions, have their passports confiscated by their employers and are threatened with deportation if they do not comply. Their home governments often do little to protect them from unscrupulous brokers. The world economy runs on migrant workers — from the countries that rely on remittances these workers send home, to the countries whose infrastructure they build, factories they run and households they look after. It is time they were accorded the rights, respect and salaries their hard work deserves, both at home and abroad.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
At the same time as more than 30 military aircraft were detected near Taiwan — one of the highest daily incursions this year — with some flying as close as 37 nautical miles (69kms) from the northern city of Keelung, China announced a limited and selected relaxation of restrictions on Taiwanese agricultural exports and tourism, upon receiving a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation led by KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁). This demonstrates the two-faced gimmick of China’s “united front” strategy. Despite the strongest earthquake to hit the nation in 25 years striking Hualien on April 3, which caused
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past