The presidents of three leading Taiwanese-American organizations have sent a letter to the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) expressing “grave concern” over the recent detention of former president Chen Shui-bian and several other Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians and officials without formal charges and urged that they be freed until any any formal charges are brought.
The letter also protests the conduct of police during the visit of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) to Taipei earlier this month, which they described as a “systematic infringement of the freedom of speech.”
Meanwhile, some members of Congress are considering sending a letter to Ma concerning the detentions, but few details of the plans are known.
Other than that, however, the multiple detentions of opposition leaders in Taiwan have elicited little official response in Washington, which has been totally consumed by the financial crisis and president-elect Barack Obama’s transition.
The State Department has been restrained in its remarks. In answer to a question on Tuesday, department spokesman Sean McCormack said: “we are confident in Taiwan’s democracy and its legal system. We have every expectation that the process will be transparent, fair and impartial.”
McCormack echoed statements by American Institute in Taiwan Director Stephen Young in Taipei recently.
But there is still some concern in Washington over the manner and timing of the detentions, coming as they did on the eve of Chen’s visit and in light of the importance Ma placed on the visit as part of his policy of placating Beijing.
Stephen Yates, a former Asian affairs aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and now president of the consulting group, DC Asia Advisory, for instance, has questioned both the timing of the detentions and the absence of any charges.
“Given the provision of law that was cited as justification for the detentions, how is it that for the last six months the Republic of China was safe up until the eve of the visit of Chen Yunlin, [and only then] did these people needed to be locked up?” Yates said. “It’s a little bit of a stretch of the imagination. And by the way, just because this law is on the books, it was written for a bygone era. Do the people of Taiwan still think this is a standard appropriate to their standard of living today?”
The three Taiwanese-American association officials who signed the letter, which was sent on Monday to Taipei Economic and Cultural office in Kansas City Director General Dale Jieh (介文汲), were Bob Yang (楊英育), president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), Sue Lee, president of the North American Taiwan Women’s Association, and Yang Mei-li (楊美麗), president of the Kansas City chapter of the Taiwanese Association of America.
The letter asked Jieh to convey to Ma’s government “the grave concerns Taiwanese-Americans now have” over the detentions and Chen Yunlin’s visit.
“Specifically, we are offended by the suppression of freedom of speech by the Ma Ying-jeou administration” during Chen Yunlin’s visit, the recent arrests and the “undignified treatment meted out to Taiwan’s former president Chen Shui-bian.”
The signatories said Chen’s treatment “epitomized the unequal application of law.”
“[Former] president Chen has not been indicted. He had earlier been banned from leaving the country. Yet the prosecutors detained him without bail and chained him in handcuffs,” the letter said. “Contrast this with the case of then Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou. He was formally indicted for corruption on Feb. 13, 2007. However, he was neither arrested nor handcuffed. In fact, he held a press conference that very day to announce his candidacy for Taiwan’s president.”
“We urge the Ma Ying-jeou administration to investigate corruption and other charges against KMT [members] as well as DPP [members],” the letter said.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS