Six years ago, Biyun Temple in Changhua County’s Ershuei Township (二水) fell into the hands of construction company owner Wei Ming-jen (魏明仁).
Since then, Buddhist scriptures have been replaced with portraits of former Chinese communist leaders Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Zhou Enlai (周恩來). A red banner reading “The People’s Liberation Army wholeheartedly serves the people” hangs on the temple wall and China’s five-star red flag flies above it.
The sound played over its loudspeakers early each morning is not the rhythmic tapping of “wooden fish” and the chanting of Sanskrit scriptures, but China’s national anthem, March of the Volunteers.
How ironic it is for a temple-shaped building that still bears a religious name to spread propaganda for the atheistic Chinese Communist Party (CCP), not to mention that when Wei was in the army, he was a chief counselor in charge of ideological education.
The bizarre contradictions involved are enough to send shivers down a person’s spine.
Few people have ever heard of Wei, but he is not the only person in Taiwan to get his ideology in a twist. Plenty of well-known figures have done the same thing.
Take for example Hsu Li-nung (許歷農), “spiritual leader” of the New Party. When he was the director-general of the Ministry of National Defense’s Political Warfare Bureau, he fervently led the troops in shouting “Down with communism.”
However, since leaving office, he has repeatedly led groups of fellow veterans to China to drink wine and chat with communist generals.
It would be hard to find anyone keener to be a vanguard of China’s unification strategy.
One second Hsu and his ilk shout themselves hoarse with anti-communist slogans and the next they blow the trumpet for alignment with the CCP. That is how twisted some people’s military ideology has become.
Back in the day when the Three Principles of the People were still the Republic of China’s holy creed, Ma Bi (馬璧) was the man who compiled textbooks to brainwash senior-high school students, but in 1981 he defected to communist China.
Despite indoctrinating everyone with the three principles, he turned out to be an apostle of communism. How contorted can a person’s political ideology get?
Then there is former premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺). When he was teaching political philosophy at National Taiwan University (NTU), he preached to his students that “a government that fails to respond to the people’s demands is an insensitive government,” but later on, when he was the premier, he looked on as baton-wielding police beat and kicked unarmed supporters of the Sunflower movement.
Different job, different brain — academics, too, can suffer from twisted thinking.
Another NTU professor, Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), broke the law and the university’s regulations by serving as an independent director of Taiwan Mobile Group and teaching part-time at various universities in China.
Having flouted laws and regulations, Kuan still has the nerve to call on the Ministry of Education to approve his appointment as NTU president “in accordance with the law.”
This shows how warped some people’s juridical ideology can be.
How can we accept a Taiwan where military, political, academic and juristic ideologies are in such a mess?
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired associate professor from National Hsinchu University of Education and a former deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Translated by Julian Clegg
There is a modern roadway stretching from central Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa, to the partially recognized state’s Egal International Airport. Emblazoned on a gold plaque marking the road’s inauguration in July last year, just below the flags of Somaliland and the Republic of China (ROC), is the road’s official name: “Taiwan Avenue.” The first phase of construction of the upgraded road, with new sidewalks and a modern drainage system to reduce flooding, was 70 percent funded by Taipei, which contributed US$1.85 million. That is a relatively modest sum for the effect on international perception, and
At the end of last year, a diplomatic development with consequences reaching well beyond the regional level emerged. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as a sovereign state, paving the way for political, economic and strategic cooperation with the African nation. The diplomatic breakthrough yields, above all, substantial and tangible benefits for the two countries, enhancing Somaliland’s international posture, with a state prepared to champion its bid for broader legitimacy. With Israel’s support, Somaliland might also benefit from the expertise of Israeli companies in fields such as mineral exploration and water management, as underscored by Israeli Minister of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) challenges and ignores the international rules-based order by violating Taiwanese airspace using a high-flying drone: This incident is a multi-layered challenge, including a lawfare challenge against the First Island Chain, the US, and the world. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) defines lawfare as “controlling the enemy through the law or using the law to constrain the enemy.” Chen Yu-cheng (陳育正), an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies, at Taiwan’s Fu Hsing Kang College (National Defense University), argues the PLA uses lawfare to create a precedent and a new de facto legal
Chile has elected a new government that has the opportunity to take a fresh look at some key aspects of foreign economic policy, mainly a greater focus on Asia, including Taiwan. Still, in the great scheme of things, Chile is a small nation in Latin America, compared with giants such as Brazil and Mexico, or other major markets such as Colombia and Argentina. So why should Taiwan pay much attention to the new administration? Because the victory of Chilean president-elect Jose Antonio Kast, a right-of-center politician, can be seen as confirming that the continent is undergoing one of its periodic political shifts,
RSS