Despite his law degree from Harvard, Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
By now, the people of Taiwan expect China to bark and growl at anyone and anything that reinforces -- however remotely -- Taiwan's sovereignty. Therefore, stories about Beijing's nit-picking demands -- such as the one about a restaurant in China being ordered to remove a map of Taiwan from its walls -- raised few eyebrows.
However, the people of Taiwan do not expect to see one of their own officials blatantly toeing Beijng's line right here in Taiwan and trampling the nation's dignity to boot. More surprising to many was that the villain was no other than Ma, the much-adored golden boy of Taiwan politics, and that Taipei police officers would become Beijing's accomplices.
Before the recent AFC Women's Championship games even opened in Taipei, Ma pleaded with soccer fans to not bring the ROC flag with them to the games. It was difficult to reconcile the Ma who made such an abject plea with the man who has talked tough in so many disputes with the central government, especially over the issue of tax redistribution.
But even more outrageous than Ma's pandering to Beijing was seeing Taipei police officers at the stadium forcibly confiscating ROC flags from patriotic fans who simply wanted to cheer on their home team -- especially when dozens of PRC flags were lining the stadium.
Thanks to a discriminatory agreement between the International Olympic Committee and Taiwan upon the latter's resumption of membership in 1981, Taiwan must use the name of "Chinese Taipei" and its official flag and song of the "Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee" in all Olympic competitions. Taiwan is forced to follow the same rules in many other international sporting competitions. It is bad enough that Taiwan teams have to swallow their pride and accept this demeaning treatment when they play abroad. To have to play under the same conditions at home is simply unacceptable.
In addition, the Olympic model of dealing with the Taiwan teams is inapplicable to private individuals. What right does the International Olympic Committee or any other sports organizations or associations have to discipline fan behavior? Even the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee was forced to concede this point yesterday.
The Taipei police have admitted that they lacked any legal basis to intervene in the stadium and confiscate flags. They say they were simply trying to persuade the individuals involved to stop waving the ROC flag. But, why even bother to persuade, if the action isn't illegal? Aren't the police only supposed to intervene when there is a violation or potential violation of the law?
Although just a teen, video-game sensation Tseng showed a lot more guts than Ma. He yelled "Taiwan No. 1" upon defeating his opponent in the final and waved the ROC flag with obvious pride during the award ceremony. Despite intimidation from Chinese reporters outraged to see the ROC flag, Tseng stood firm.
Tseng has been talking about returning to school to complete his education. It's obvious he needs no further lessons on either patriotism or courage.
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed
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