Over the past week, an outpouring of criticism, ridicule and denunciation have inundated newspapers and social networking sites after Taiwanese singer Huang An (黃安), dubbed the “nemesis of pro-independence individuals,” returned to Taiwan from China for medical treatment after suffering a heart attack.
Many Taiwanese urged the government to deny Huang medical treatment, saying his ratting out of Taiwanese who support national independence to the Chinese authorities makes him too despicable to deserve Taiwanese healthcare.
Others criticized him for trumpeting his success in China and pledging his loyalty to China, but returning to Taiwan for medical treatment and to take advantage of the National Health Insurance (NHI) system.
Some netizens even “prayed for the disease,” wishing ill on Huang.
Such a public outcry is understandable, particularly when one considers a video by teenage K-pop star Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) giving a seemingly forced apology for holding a Republic of China flag on a South Korean TV show late last year.
The video, released on the eve of the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections, galvanized widespread fury and reignited Taiwanese nationalism. Some people said it played a decisive factor in the defeat of many Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidates.
However, people seem to be getting caught up in a media frenzy and criticizing Huang without considering one fundamental fact: Under Taiwan’s Constitution, all citizens should be treated as equal, irrespective of sex, religion, race, class or party affiliation.
Article 22 of the Constitution also stipulates that the freedoms and rights of people that are not detrimental to social order or public welfare shall be guaranteed.
That means people can hate Huang and disagree with his political views and way of doing things, but he should not be deprived of freedom of speech and, most of all, his basic human right to healthcare simply because his ideas run against mainstream public opinion. Is it not the spirit of democracy?
If Huang is indeed a Taiwanese citizen and pays his NHI premiums then there is no reason why he should be ineligible for treatment on the NHI program. It is his guaranteed right.
A Facebook message posted on Tuesday by a nurse working at Cheng Hsin General Hospital in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) — where Huang is being treated — shared a similar view.
The nurse, Huang Ching-yu (黃清裕), said that while he loathes Huang An, regardless of his personal characteristics or political affiliation, he is just a patient in the eyes of a professional medical practitioner.
“No matter who walks in the hospital, be it the president, a death-row inmate, a drug addict or a lunatic, he is just a patient and shall therefore receive all the treatment he needs,” Huang Ching-yu said.
Huang Ching-yu said the hospital’s emergency unit has been flooded with calls from people wanting to criticize its medical staff for treating Huang An.
“If you want the nation to close its doors to Huang An, of course you can do that, but not until you amend the law... As far as I am concerned, even a death-row inmate has the right to healthcare,” he said.
Amid long-running political wrangling between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, Taiwanese have been living in a polarized society where political parties are marred by sharp divisions.
It has contributed to the tendency of people to automatically stand on the same side as the party they support without giving the issues much thought or seeking more information before determining their position.
If Taiwanese intend to transform the nation into a more consolidated democracy, we need more independent, rational thinking, rather than blind conformity to party lines.
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
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US