A historic court ruling last week did more than make Taiwan the first place in Asia to let same-sex couples wed: It also widened the political gap with China.
The decision by the Council of Grand Justices on Wednesday to legalize same-sex marriage in two years — if lawmakers do not do so first — underscored the nation’s differences with one-party China; the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls all branches of government and faces little public pressure to allow same-sex marriage.
“If we have the same culture and belong to the same race — what caused this difference?” said Li Yinhe (李銀河), one of China’s leading authorities on sex and family issues and a long-time gay rights advocate. “It is the system. This is a problem stemming from the system.”
The ruling, which President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) quickly vowed to implement, undermines Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) appeals to shared culture when he makes his case for peaceful unification.
While the two nations share a common language and other customs, they are drifting further apart as Taiwan deepens its embrace of democracy and civil liberties.
Although China has been relatively tolerant of homosexuality over the centuries, citizens have few venues to pressure the government to change a law that says marriage “must be based upon the complete willingness of both man and woman.”
Protests are tightly restricted. Petitioning is controlled. Legislators, judges and media chiefs are appointed by the CCP and rarely challenge the leadership.
Meanwhile, efforts by gay marriage advocates to use China’s courts have been mixed.
A district court in Beijing ruled against using therapy to “correct” homosexuality in 2014, while one in Hunan Province last year rejected a same-sex couple’s attempt to wed in the nation’s first gay-marriage case.
Li, who has written more than 10 books about sexuality and lives with a transgender partner, has since 2002 submitted several proposals to China’s National People’s Congress to revise the marriage law.
She said the ruling undercuts arguments from opponents who say the change would be incompatible with Chinese culture and values.
“I believe it will encourage a minority rights movement in the mainland,” Li said of Taiwan’s decision. “But it’s a long way to go to catch up.”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said the ruling showed how Taiwan’s political system was better equipped to respect minority rights and diversity.
“We do not think people in China are seeking different values than people in Taiwan,” Chung said. “It is the result of a different political system and democratic practices over the years.”
Cross-strait relations have been strained since Tsai won a landslide election victory last year on a pledge to reduce the nation’s reliance on China.
She has refused to endorse the “one China” framework for negotiations, spoke on the telephone in December last year with then-US president-elect Donald Trump and hosted an unprecedented ministerial-level delegation from Japan.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) disagreed that the marriage ruling would further widen the divide.
“We might get some respect, some applause from the international community, but that does not mean it will change cross-strait relations,” Kung said. “The bottom line of cross-strait relations is that both sides belong to one China, and that has not changed a bit.”
There is also the possibility that Taiwan’s political shift prompts change in China.
Jerome Cohen, a New York University School of Law professor who has been studying China’s legal system since the 1960s, said the “positive impact” of the gay marriage ruling “far outweighs” any damage to cross-strait relations.
“The more educated classes will appreciate not only the wisdom and fairness of the decision on the merits, but also the significance of the role of the judiciary in a genuine government-under-law country,” Cohen said. “Of course, the decision vividly highlights the sad contrast between Taiwan’s version of the rule of law, democracy and human rights and the mainland’s, which has become ever more repressive.”
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS