EDITORIAL CARTOON

EDITORIAL CARTOON

China’s COVID-19 crisis demands terrible choices, and the world would suffer if it goes wrong

Protesters across China have made one thing very clear: After three years of harsh restrictions, many people are tired of their government’s pursuit of an increasingly ineffective “zero COVID” strategy. China once celebrated its success in containing outbreaks and keeping its economy running, but it has been slow to adapt to a world of more infective variants and mass vaccination. As life begins to feel increasingly normal in Britain and elsewhere, 49 cities — representing one-third of China’s population and two-fifths of its economic output — are in partial or total lockdown. The protests would put pressure on the regime to change its approach, but that might be easier said than done. China has been highly politically committed to its COVID-19 policy, even as it has become less and less tenable. Moreover, the situation with its health system, population immunity and vaccine stocks is vastly different from the UK’s, partly because of the choices it made earlier in the pandemic. China will have to face some form of living with the virus soon, and millions of lives — not to mention global economic stability — depend on how this happens. China was an early adopter of overwhelming measures to contain COVID-19. This involved recurrent lockdowns affecting millions, but also building isolation centers and hospitals very quickly, mass polymerase chain reaction testing, intensive contact tracing and surveillance, and mandatory masking. Some of the measures were incredibly draconian. Yet, despite the cost to civil liberties, it worked in stopping COVID-19 initially. However, last year, several safe and effective vaccines were approved, which meant that widespread protection could be delivered to Western populations. Take-up was remarkably high, and country after country, including maximum suppression countries such as New Zealand, Australia and South Korea, pivoted from containment to mass vaccination, access to antiviral therapies and “living with

By Devi Sridhar

Xi unlikely to tolerate dissent as protests shake China

Just five weeks after being elected to a historic third term, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) suddenly faces cracks in the facade of unchallenged authority that he so successfully presented to the world at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For groups of protesters, apparently without central coordination, to take to the streets across China and to social media, and for some to explicitly call for Xi and the CCP to stand aside, is a seismic shock. The echoes with Iran are superficially present, even if the two political cultures and the proximate causes of the unrest are entirely different. Equally the rush to compare these protests with those of 1989 is tempting, but wrong, as it has been previously during numerous bouts of dissent over the past two decades. However, many observers detect two unique factors about the current protests. In 1989, the protests were largely confined to Beijing, but these demonstrations are much more geographically diffuse, and with an apparent knowledge of what other cities are doing. Second, there is a sense that the proximate cause — Xi’s unending hallmark “zero COVID” policy — is enough to bring people on to the streets, but also resonant enough to pose wider questions about how the Chinese state operates. So COVID-19 provides a frame for workers in Zhengzhou, for students across dozens of campuses and for the people of Urumqi, the capital of the remote region of Xinjiang where the deaths of 10 people in a high-rise apartment block fire have been blamed on COVID-19 restrictions delaying firefighters. In Urumqi, social media showed Chinese communist officials pleading for patience after being berated for the COVID-19 lockdowns that have lasted in some cases for months. Social media, however controlled in China, is a combustible new element. One of the difficulties for the government

By Patrick Wintour

Britain’s feeble response to China’s assault on human rights in Hong Kong

The trial of Jimmy Lai (黎智英), the Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner and media tycoon, which is to start today, marks another low point in China’s relentless assault on individual and civil rights in Britain’s former colony — whose traditional freedoms Beijing is legally bound to uphold. Lai, a British citizen who founded the popular Apple Daily newspaper, faces charges of conspiracy to publish seditious material and collusion with foreign powers under Beijing’s draconian 2020 National Security Law. The accusations are offensive and ridiculous. In effect, the Chinese Communist Party is mounting a show trial. Like hundreds of others being held without bail, Lai, if found guilty by a handpicked, three-judge panel acting without a jury, faces a life sentence. He is already in solitary confinement after an earlier conviction for unlawful assembly and fraud. Lai denies the charges. This political persecution must cease. Hong Kong’s huge pro-democracy protests in 2019-2020, which led to more than 10,000 arrests, were sparked by China’s introduction of an illiberal extradition bill. The foolishly violent response of the security forces transformed the demonstrations into a student-led mass movement challenging Beijing’s right to rule. For an authoritarian, one-party system, any such display of defiance, whether in Xinjiang, Tibet or in lockdown-stressed Shanghai, is unforgivable. For the insecure Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), spreading dissent is more dangerous than spreading COVID-19. His Hong Kong policy now resembles a vendetta. Last week’s conviction of Hong Kong’s respected Catholic leader, Cardinal Joseph Zen (陳日君), and five other activists showed again how little respect Xi’s China has for personal liberties and legal obligations under the 1984 Sino-British joint declaration. Zen was fined for failing to register a support fund for detained protesters. China’s arrogant and threatening behavior on multiple fronts requires a robust response from Britain. Whether the issue is the violent antics of

EDITORIAL: Hints for 2024 in local elections

The defeats suffered by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Saturday’s local elections are being interpreted as a failed midterm test for President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) leadership and a boost for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), suggesting a more competitive 2024 presidential election. Although the local elections do not necessarily have a major effect on national elections, last week’s results will surely make the 2024 race more intense. The DPP won only five of the top races in the 21 city and county elections, its worst performance since its founding in 1986. The KMT won 13 seats, including the capital, Taipei, and three other special municipalities — Taoyuan, New Taipei City and Taichung — with the four municipalities accounting for about half of Taiwan’s population. The TPP won the Hsinchu City mayoralty, making the party and its chairman, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), major players with a strong political platform, even with Ko’s time in office about to end, setting the TPP apart from other small parties that are always at risk of fading. Tsai has stepped down as DPP chairperson to take responsibility for the party’s disastrous losses, partly because most of its candidates were directly nominated by party leaders instead of in primaries, a strategic flaw that many consider harmful to unity. In addition, most of its candidates were bogged down by negative campaigning from their opponents. Although Tsai had framed the elections as a means to defy China’s bellicosity, voters in local elections tend to be more focused on local issues, such as inflation or COVID-19 restrictions. A section of the electorate was also influenced by local factions, something the KMT has traditionally benefited from more. However, Saturday’s results will not necessarily have a major effect on 2024, when cross-strait issues would once again be

Taiwan should share intelligence

The Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday last week announced that a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Kamov Ka-28 anti-submarine helicopter had been spotted over waters to the east of Taiwan. The announcement attracted considerable attention, because Taiwan’s east coast has always been a key area for its air and sea defenses. The incident raises the following points of interest: First, the waters to the east of Taiwan are typically more than 1,000m deep, which makes the area suitable for submarines to conduct operations. The presence of an anti-submarine helicopter hints that PLA Navy submarines are operating to the east of Taiwan, so the military should be watchful. Second, in the PLA’s plans, east of Taiwan would be the main area of battle with US and Japanese forces that might come to Taiwan’s aid were Beijing to invade. Taipei should not rule out that the PLA might conduct more such exercises in the sea and air to the east, which would put a lot of pressure on air defenses. Third, since the PLA launched military exercises around Taiwan in August, Chinese authorities have unilaterally negated a tacit agreement regarding the median line of the Taiwan Strait, and have continued to use naval and airborne forces to exert relentless pressure on Taiwan, including subsequent military exercises. The drill involving the helicopter was probably related to the two-yearly US-Japanese Keen Sword 23 naval exercises, which took place from Nov. 10 to 19 in areas that came to within nearly 100km of Taiwan. Australian, Canadian and British navy ships also participated. China’s activity can be seen as a response and challenge to the US. Taiwan should take this incident as an opportunity to show its intelligence-sharing abilities, which would help boost its importance to regional security. Ray Song is a doctoral student at Tamkang University’s Institute of International Affairs

By Ray Song 宋磊

Respect, protect self-determination

In the 16th century, Francisco de Vitoria, a professor of law at the University of Salamanca, identified 15 human rights, of which this was his 10th: “Toda nacion tiene derecho a gobernarse a si misma y puede aceptar el regimen politico que quiera, aun cuando no sea el mejor,” meaning “all nations have the right to govern themselves and can accept the political regime it wants, even if it is not the best.” In 1810, Dionisio Inca Yupanqui, a Quechua descendant of Incan King Huayna Capac and the only indigenous delegate in Cadiz for the rewriting of the Spanish constitution, remarked that “a people that oppresses another cannot be free.” This was noticed by economists and philosophers of the mid-1800s who adapted Yupanqui’s argument after they studied the Cortes de Cadiz and Spain’s resistance to Napoleon in the Peninsular War. It was applied to the case of Ireland to develop theories of national self-determination. That discussion gave birth to the famous phrase: “A nation that enslaves another forges its own chains.” The entire field of contemporary human, economic and political rights that exists today, from the individual to the state, has been built in some way on the concepts of sovereignty and self-determination. The history of the development of the right to self-determination and its invocation, in good and bad faith, is one of reaction to empires. Between 1776 and 1919, numerous empires — including the Ottoman, Russian, Austrian/Habsburg, Qing, Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, Dutch, German, US and Japanese — competed for regional and global dominance, expanding or contracting at the expense of each other. These empires effectively ignored the self-determination of those they colonized or governed from afar. In the case of Taiwan, the Qing Dynasty seized the Pescadores [Penghu] and occupied the western plains of Taiwan from 1683 until 1895. They were unable to extend

By Ben Goren

Political differences should not be divisions

French media have taken a special interest in Taiwan, and I have been asked to translate for a French TV channel and participate in making a series of programs about Taiwan. These programs all share a common trait in that they compare the situations in Taiwan and Ukraine. For example, a number of pro-Russian Ukrainians said they wished to be “liberated” before Moscow invaded Ukraine. These people accounted for about 10 percent of the population prior to the war and they believed that Russia would not invade. Moscow, of course, launched a full-scale invasion, and in so doing inadvertently unified Ukrainians in a common goal of stopping Russia’s aggression. No one can predict when war will break out. Like everyone living in Europe, I have experienced the intimidation, menace and looming nuclear threat that Europe’s bellicose neighbor poses. I have braced myself for the upcoming winter. Like all Europeans, I have seen Moscow’s true colors and I think it is safe to assume that no Ukrainian now harbors any illusions about Russia. Ukraine’s plight has made me think of Taiwan’s situation. Do Taiwanese wish to join China? Do parents want their children to be brought up in a society under Chinese ideology? In video footage filmed by the channel I am working with, Taiwanese interviewees, who come across as pure and well-meaning, shun the question when asked about China’s intimidation of Taiwan, but are firm in their stance on their identity: They are Taiwanese through and through. The global media have been highly interested in Taiwan’s vibrant election culture and its carnival-like campaigns. Taiwan’s election campaigns remind them of ancient Greek democracy. The West has lost its interest in and passion for direct democracy, so Westerners are especially moved when they see Taiwan’s election culture, as if they are witnessing the workings of direct

By Li-lin Ricordeau 陳麗伶

[ LETTER ]

Photo shows responsibility What a pleasure it was to see in the Taipei Times a photograph of university students along with others promoting environmental awareness (“Common Cause,” Nov. 28, page 3). The young men and women in the photo represent the future of Taiwan and other nations, and are developing early a sense of responsibility through action. This is a trait that I have encouraged in my communications classes for more than 20 years and something that I, as a “senior citizen” ready to turn the reins over to the next generations, am eager to see take effect. Our countries — Taiwan, the US and many others — badly need responsible, dedicated leaders to help move them forward. Unfortunately, in the past few years — especially here in the US — there has emerged a discouraging negative trend. My fingers are crossed for the future of our “Common Cause.” Kirk Hazlett Tampa, Florida

EDITORIAL CARTOON

EDITORIAL CARTOON

Creative AI is generating some messy problems

A tense scene in the 2004 movie I, Robot shows the character played by Will Smith arguing with an android about humanity’s creative prowess. “Can a robot write a symphony?” he asks, rhetorically. “Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?” “Can you?” the robot answers. Machines would not need the snarky reply in our reality. The answer would simply be “yes.” In the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) systems have shifted from being able to process content — recognizing faces or reading and transcribing text — to creating digital paintings or writing essays. The digital artist Beeple was shocked in August when several Twitter users generated their own versions of one of his paintings with AI-powered tools. Similar software can create music and even videos. The broad term describing all this is “generative AI,” and as this latest lurch into our digital future becomes part of our present, some familiar tech industry challenges such as copyright and social harm are already re-emerging. We will probably look back on this year as when generative AI exploded into mainstream attention, as image-generating systems from OpenAI and the open source start-up Stability AI were released to the public, prompting a flood of fantastical images on social media. One of the technological milestones that sparked the rise of generative AI was the advent of the transformer model. First proposed in a paper by Google researchers in 2017, the models needed less time to train and could underpin higher quality AI systems for generating language. The breakthroughs are still coming thick and fast. Last week, researchers at Meta Platforms announced an AI system that could negotiate with humans and generate dialogue in a strategy game called Diplomacy. Venture capital investment in the field grew to US$1.3 billion in deals this year, data from research firm Pitchbook showed, even

By Parmy Olson

Lots of things are sexist; the phrase ‘nepo baby’ is not one of them

Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Hear that? It is the sound of some upset nepo babies. A “nepo baby,” for those wondering, is online slang for a celebrity who comes from a famous family, which, by the way, seems to be every other person in the entertainment industry. The phrase, which is not necessarily an insult, has become popular, and some nepo babies are starting to feel somewhat attacked by the term. In the past few weeks a number of celebrity offspring, including Madonna’s eldest daughter and Zoe Kravitz, have given interviews where they have said that they have not really benefited from having famous parents, but even if they had, that is fine because there is nepotism in every industry. While all the nepo baby interviews have been getting attention, Lily-Rose Depp has been raising the most eyebrows. In a recent interview with Elle magazine, Depp (an actor and the daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis) said that talent trumps connections. “People are going to have preconceived ideas about you or how you got there, and I can definitely say that nothing is going to get you the part except for being right for the part,” Lily-Rose Depp said. I can definitely say that is complete nonsense. It does not detract from her talent to acknowledge that connections and privilege often play a huge part in success. As the saying goes: Talent is equally distributed, opportunity is not. When you pretend otherwise, when you pretend that we live in a pure meritocracy, you are not just saying that you deserve your success, you are saying that less successful people did not work hard enough or were not talented enough. You are ignoring all the structural and systemic issues that allow some people to play life on “easy mode.” Lily-Rose Depp did not just suggest

By Arwa Mahdawi

EDITORIAL: Semiconductor bill lacks vision

The Ministry of Economic Affairs this month proposed tax incentives in its latest effort to safeguard Taiwan’s crucial role in the world’s chip supply chain, following similar, but more significant, incentives and subsidies launched in the US, EU, Japan and South Korea. While efforts in those countries aim to subsidize the construction of new factories to build their own resilient chip operations, the ministry’s proposal is focused on incentivizing research and development (R&D), which makes sense, as Taiwanese firms have already built a strong domestic foothold with hefty investments in capacity. The draft amendment to the Statute for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例) proposes a 25 percent tax deduction on eligible companies’ R&D costs, up from 15 percent. It also proposes a tax break of 5 percent on advanced equipment procurement, granted the total deductions do not exceed 50 percent of a firm’s overall income taxes. The ministry is pushing the legislature to pass the bill before the end of the year. However, the bill does not specify a minimum level of R&D expenditure to qualify for the tax breaks, leaving some companies worried that they might be excluded from the incentives. Instituting a high threshold of NT$10 billion (US$322.45 million) in R&D expenditures per year would only benefit large companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc, which invested NT$300 billion a year in Taiwan, primarily in R&D. The ministry said its plan seeks to encourage new investment in cutting-edge technologies and advanced equipment across sectors such as 5G, electric vehicles and low Earth orbit satellites. That would make it difficult to help small start-ups that cannot easily break into those fields. The bill also does not define the word “advanced.” A high bar would make it inaccessible to most businesses. TSMC considers the 7-nanometer manufacturing process and smaller

Smoke billows out of Xi’s kitchen

Although internal Chinese politics are largely defined by meticulously concocted mysteries, it is an open secret that the battle for who will ascend to the highest echelons of Zhongnanhai is decided at the Beidaihe resort. It is where factions within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) engage in horse-trading over leadership selection and delegate appointments long before the party’s national congress. What unfolded at last month’s 20th National Congress was predetermined at the Beidaihe gathering in August. In this context, the CCP, and particularly Chinese President and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平), used the event to project power and party unity. It went well, but not as well as Xi would have wished. Xi is a master chef and was about to present a spectacular dish when smoke started billowing from the kitchen, making it not just the talk of the town, but of the whole world. A lone protester, Peng Lifa (彭立發), caught international attention when he started shouting slogans on a Beijing bridge draped with two long banners denouncing Xi’s repressive rule and “zero COVID” policy, while clouds of smoke rose behind him. He was demanding freedom and food just days before Xi was to put on his show. For a regime obsessed with image and orchestration, and for a command and control freak like Xi, this is probably the last thing the president wanted to see, especially before the national congress, where he was to be the center of attention. Peng’s creative piece of activism took away some of the limelight from Xi’s grand stage and steered the focal point of world media onto Xi’s dark spots — the unpopularity of his repressive rule — and the regressive direction in which he is dragging China. Peng also had some valuable warnings for Xi that a “wise” leader would do well to listen

By Palden Sonam

Stop flow of pro-China propaganda in Taiwan

The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the New Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office recently uncovered misconduct by Kaohsiung news outlet China VTV Co (中華微視公司). The company is being investigated for allegedly having financial connections with China without the approval of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission. China VTV also allegedly conducted an information campaign by creating videos in line with Chinese propaganda and posting them on social media, aiming to foment social division and mistrust in the government, prosecutors said. This is nothing short of exhilarating, as it means that the government is finally using legal means to stop pro-China “accomplices” that are promoting Chinese propaganda. RUMOR MILLS In the run-up to the 2018 nine-in-one elections, pro-China groups launched a series of information campaigns. From Chinese official media outlets, content farms and video makers in Taiwan, to the dissemination of rumors and fake news on the messaging app Line and Facebook. The groups — in terms of size, approach and labor division — have shown to be organized and meticulous in running their operations. As there are bound to be reshuffles in administrative agencies such as the Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s State Council in the wake of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, China’s information warfare against Taiwan has temporarily died down. Compared with the 2018 elections, there was a sharp decline in the number of rumors, hoaxes and disinformation spread by pro-China groups ahead of the local elections on Saturday. However, it can be assumed that the powers and the groups behind these campaigns have only temporarily paused their efforts, and when the Chinese Communist Party has need for them, they would reawaken to do its bidding again. TIP OF THE ICEBERG China VTV is only the tip of the iceberg, and Taiwan’s police and investigative forces’ mission to crack down on pro-China groups

By Roger Wu 吳哲文

[ LETTER ]

Bring back courts martial Having read Chao Hsuey-wen’s (趙萃文) article on reinstating military trials (“Military trials might need to be reinstated,” Nov. 28, page 8), I would like to share my opinion on the issue. Over the past few years, there have been a number of criminal offenses, including insubordination, sexual harassment, drinking, drug use and drunk driving in the armed forces. For me, the final straw was the news that former army colonel Hsiang Te-en (向德恩) had allegedly signed a “pledge of surrender” to the Chinese Communist Party — which he held in a photograph while dressed in his military uniform — and was charged with corruption instead of treason. That decision triggered a debate on the reinstatement of military trials. Military personnel, when suited, booted and armed, need to follow protocols and be subjected to constraints. Judges don robes in court and doctors wear white coats. Likewise, military uniforms are meant to represent impartiality, selflessness and empathy. Any intentional contravention of the law should therefore be dealt with seriously. If a colonel who allegedly committed treason is not tried in a court martial, he can only be regarded as a “civilian,” and not military personnel. The Republic of China’s founder Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) believed that “military personnel have no freedom,” meaning that they should all fall under the jurisdiction of military law, and not the civilian judicial system, to uphold order and troop discipline. If not, how can deterrence be deployed if a soldier is tried as a civilian? As the saying goes: “Military orders are like a mountain, military discipline is hard as iron.” If the military cannot enforce these principles by imposing punitive measures such as solitary confinement, how can we expect the army to have the combat readiness to protect the nation? Following the death of army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) in 2013, former president Ma

EDITORIAL CARTOON

EDITORIAL CARTOON