Interrogated over jog
I am perhaps the only living foreigner in Taiwan who can testify to the power and infiltration of the Taiwan Garrison Command (TGC) over the lives of every person in Taiwan.
In 1977, I was questioned, military style, by a special assistant to General Wang Sheng (王昇), the head of the TGC, also a Mr Wang, for five hours, in my home, with nobody else present. Very scary, because this man had power of life or death over me.
The session began by him saying: “I will question you, write the question down, you answer, I write the answer down, and we keep doing that for as long as it takes, hours, days or months, here in your home or in the hole up the hills on Yangmingshan, till I am satisfied about your intentions.”
The session finished with Mr Wang saying: “I do not know if you are a genius or super stupid because it is hard for me to accept that you got involved in such a big mess just because you want to jog on the beach.”
The issue was the chief of general staff — the nation’s highest military officer — being involved in building an illegal port in front of my beach house to receive an invading force, and me, while jogging, finding out about this scheme and taking the case to the authorities, General Wang.
I escaped deportation, but a general was demoted and exiled as ambassador to Panama.
Everybody tells me I was very lucky.
Pierre Loisel
New Taipei City
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