The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been accusing the government and Western powers of intervening in the ongoing Hong Kong protests. It is trying to absolve itself of responsibility for the unrest by suggesting that the protests would not have gained traction without outside help.
It is also trying to distract attention from the fact that the Hong Kong protests are a symptom of a larger problem. That problem is not China. It is the CCP itself.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has denied any involvement by the government in the protests. Her denial was affirmed in a Taipei news conference on Thursday last week by Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), who said neither the Taiwanese government nor political parties have been involved, other than offering expressions of support and assistance.
Beijing is well aware of its economic and diplomatic clout; it has exploited these to ensure foreign governments remain complicit in Taiwan’s suppression. Now it is blaming them for stoking the flames of discontent in Hong Kong.
If this was the case, why are these governments maintaining a hands-off approach to erosions of freedoms and dilution of cultures in Tibet and Xinjiang, as well as near-genocidal atrocities in the latter?
The response of the international community to what the CCP is doing to Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang is anemic compared to the outcry over the treatment of the Rohingya by Myanmar’s government, for example. The difference is not one of religion or ethnicity — it is economic considerations and the repercussions of offending Beijing.
In Taiwan, the CCP is using threats of force, annexation and suppression of nation’s international space.
Tokyo under Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been very pro-Taiwan, as has Washington under US President Donald Trump, but Japan and the US have their hands tied in how much they are willing to test Beijing’s patience.
More than the government or political parties, it is civil society in Taiwan that has risen to show its support for Hong Kong this summer, along with marches protesting Beijing’s increasing attempts to intervene in Taiwan’s domestic affairs.
The last few weeks have seen rallies in support of Hong Kong on the streets of New York City. On Saturday last week, there was a rally calling for Taiwan’s inclusion in the UN. Although the UN For Taiwan/Keep Taiwan Free rally has been an annual event in the city for more than two decades, this year it was joined by demonstrators calling for Hong Kong to be free from the CCP’s suppression, as well as by other groups, including the Uighur Human Rights Project and Students for a Free Tibet.
The demonstrators were counted in the hundreds, not the thousands. Naysayers could dismiss the event for its limited size, and the fact that there is always somebody protesting something somewhere. This rally was different, though.
The camaraderie of Hong Kongers and Taiwanese is well-established, given our common language and common tormentor. However, Saturday’s rally might be one of the first events organized by civil society groups that represent all the regions and groups that the CCP has taken control of, or is seeking to take control of.
The CCP is trying to strangle dissent by depriving proud peoples of their cultures and their histories, in some cases using particularly brutal and pernicious tactics.
As with other pressing issues, such as climate change, we should not be relying on national governments and leaders to get the urgency of the message across. Perhaps it comes down to international civil society groups getting together all over the world and making their collective voices heard.
The White House’s decision to take a 9.9 percent stake in Intel Corp is looking like very shrewd business indeed. Since the government bought in at US$20.47 a share last August, the US chipmaker’s surging stock price has delivered the US a US$43 billion return. One of the reasons the investment has so far proved so sound is that the White House has made sure of it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Howard personally pushed deals on Intel’s behalf with some of the most lucrative clients imaginable. They include Nvidia Corp, the company at the heart of the AI
The Ministry of the Interior, working with the navy and coast guard, is organizing Taiwan’s first joint exercise simulating escort tankers carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) and oil through a Chinese blockade. The drills simulate fuel transport along three maritime corridors leading toward Japan, the Philippines and the US. Deputy Minister of the Interior Sawyer Mars (馬士元) said that a blockade of the Taiwan Strait would amount to “almost a 100 percent blockade of the regional energy supply.” Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo said planning to counter a blockade is standard practice in Taipei. While the exercise is limited in
A single photograph can cut through a lot of noise, but it can also be used to misrepresent the truth. At the very least, it can concentrate the mind on something that requires further investigation. On Monday last week, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation CEO Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) and former National Security Council secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) held a news conference in which they showed a photograph of former foundation CEO Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑), now Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deputy chairman. In the image Hsiao is seated next to Xiamen Taiwan Businessmen Association chairman Han Ying-huan (韓螢煥). The two men were holding
I first met Professor Ray Jiing (井迎瑞) as a film and documentary student at Shih Hsin University’s (SHU) Department of Radio Television and Film in 1988. The following year, he went on to become the director of the Chinese Taipei Film Archive — forerunner of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI). Over his eight-year tenure, Jiing rescued and restored over 200 classic Taiwanese films. In 1997, he established the Graduate Institute of Studies in Documentary and Film Archiving at Tainan National University of the Arts (TNNUA), and I joined the program in his third cohort of students. Beyond a
RSS