Your editorial of Sept. 24 correctly noted that death is an improper penalty but you shied away from investigating the full implications of this by saying that you do not intend to stir up a debate about the abolition of the death sentence. In fact, there is already a debate on the death penalty in legal circles in Taiwan. This debate needs to be brought into the public domain.
At his inauguration, President Chen stated that he wished to integrate the International Bill of Human Rights into domestic legislation. Part of this Bill is the Second Optional Protocol which calls for the abolition of the death penalty in peacetime.
Many of your readers will probably be unaware of this. If Taiwan is to accept modern international standards of human rights it must abolish the death penalty. That Taiwan is heading for greater protection for human rights is clear. Abolition of the death penalty is a good test of the sincerity of this move.
The fundamental principle of a human rights regime is that a human being, no matter what he or she has done, is always to be treated with the respect due to a human being. No one, no matter how heinous the crime or crimes committed, is ever a non-person. By abolishing the death penalty, a state is clearly affirming its support for this fundamental principle. Debate on the topic is needed in Taiwan for various reasons. There is a popular misconception that when faced with a violent murderer the state is faced with execution or doing nothing. This is not the case. A state can provide secure and long jail terms for those who have caused severe damage to society. In Taiwan it will be necessary to ensure that life sentences are what they say and not limited to 10 years. Hence reform of prisons and the law may be required at the same time as abolition is enacted.
There is also need for greater study of victims of the death penalty in Taiwan. In the US, abundant evidence shows that it falls hardest on blacks. It also leads to the death of innocent persons. Here in Taiwan there has been no equivalent study made though lawyers are well aware that procedures in capital cases are imperfect.
The John Paul II Peace Institute is financing such research and planning an international conference on the topic next year. NGOs and concerned groups need to work together to ensure that the death penalty is removed from the statute book. Cardinal Paul Shan SJ has already made such a call on behalf of the Catholic Church and other bodies have made similar appeals and more will continue to do so.
Humanitarian concerns should never remain alien to Chinese society. The death penalty is a national disgrace and a token of failure for any society that is foolish enough to retain it.
Edmund Ryden SJ
John Paul II Peace Institute
Fujen University, Taiwan
Business in China is suicide
I agree wholeheartedly with Tien-Lin Huang's (黃天麟) article ("Economy is weakened by investing in China," Sept. 24, page 8). Taiwanese businessmen have been lured by the low labor and land costs in China. What they forget is that by doing so, they make themselves the pawns of the Chinese economy and Chinese politics.
Look at the cowardly attitudes taken by both the presidents of Acer Computers and Formosa Plastics when they were confronted with the threat of financial losses if they supported the cause of Taiwanese self-determination.
The reality is that China needs foreign capital more than the foreign companies need China. The Taiwanese need to realize this. They have the upper hand in this situation. They need to stand up for themselves, show their backbone, and not be cowardly about promoting Taiwanese identity and interests.
Furthermore, Taiwanese companies that do business in China also damage their market share in Taiwan, the US and around the world.
There is a fast growing movement in the US and in the rest of the world to boycott any product that is made in China. This includes both electronics as well as food and grocery products that make it to the shelves of local Asian stores.
This sentiment also applies to any product regardless of the origin of the mother company, even if that company is a Taiwanese brand -- such as Acer or another Asian brand, such as Olympus or Samsung -- China benefits greatly from this flow of foreign currency. They channel this money to feeding the People's Liberation Army, to buying missiles, and upgrading their military industrial complex. Their military target is Taiwan.
The Taiwanese cannot be blind to this reality. Continuing to do business in China is to sign Taiwan's own suicide note. The Taiwanese people need to wake up to this reality.
Gene Deune, asst Professor
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland, US
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has offered Taiwan a paradoxical mix of reassurance and risk. Trump’s visceral hostility toward China could reinforce deterrence in the Taiwan Strait. Yet his disdain for alliances and penchant for transactional bargaining threaten to erode what Taiwan needs most: a reliable US commitment. Taiwan’s security depends less on US power than on US reliability, but Trump is undermining the latter. Deterrence without credibility is a hollow shield. Trump’s China policy in his second term has oscillated wildly between confrontation and conciliation. One day, he threatens Beijing with “massive” tariffs and calls China America’s “greatest geopolitical
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) made the astonishing assertion during an interview with Germany’s Deutsche Welle, published on Friday last week, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a dictator. She also essentially absolved Putin of blame for initiating the war in Ukraine. Commentators have since listed the reasons that Cheng’s assertion was not only absurd, but bordered on dangerous. Her claim is certainly absurd to the extent that there is no need to discuss the substance of it: It would be far more useful to assess what drove her to make the point and stick so
The central bank has launched a redesign of the New Taiwan dollar banknotes, prompting questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators — “Are we not promoting digital payments? Why spend NT$5 billion on a redesign?” Many assume that cash will disappear in the digital age, but they forget that it represents the ultimate trust in the system. Banknotes do not become obsolete, they do not crash, they cannot be frozen and they leave no record of transactions. They remain the cleanest means of exchange in a free society. In a fully digitized world, every purchase, donation and action leaves behind data.
US President Donald Trump’s seemingly throwaway “Taiwan is Taiwan” statement has been appearing in headlines all over the media. Although it appears to have been made in passing, the comment nevertheless reveals something about Trump’s views and his understanding of Taiwan’s situation. In line with the Taiwan Relations Act, the US and Taiwan enjoy unofficial, but close economic, cultural and national defense ties. They lack official diplomatic relations, but maintain a partnership based on shared democratic values and strategic alignment. Excluding China, Taiwan maintains a level of diplomatic relations, official or otherwise, with many nations worldwide. It can be said that
RSS