Why is the government stalling over the case of Xu Bo (
We have heard a number of different reasons why a decision on Xu's case has taken so long. First we were told that, since he was traveling on a false passport, there was a question of identity. That question having been resolved, we were then told that there was nevertheless doubt as to whether Xu was a genuine escapee from political persecution. Xiang Lin (
After his 30,000-character book on the Tiananmen crisis, Red Fascist, irked Beijing's red fascists, Xu fled China's security state in 1999 and sought refuge in South Korea. There he was granted refugee status by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which asked the South Korean government not to deport him. But he also received less-than-welcome attention from Seoul's National Intelligence Service which labeled him "an anti-establishment activist" and sought his deportation, irrespective of UNHCR's request. Fearing that it was just a matter of time before the South Koreans sent him back to China, Xu hopped on a plane to Thailand that stopped over in Taipei, and asked for asylum here.
Xu's problem, the government now says, is that this country has no asylum law -- you can't claim asylum because the nation doesn't recognize the concept. This seems strange when one considers that the ROC is itself an exile from China. It seems downright reprehensible when one considers how many leading lights of the DPP have themselves spent time in political exile. When the DPP came to power it promised an emphasis on human rights and a shakeup of the legal system according to that agenda. This has yet to come.
This is the second time in less than six months that Taiwan's lip-service-only attitude to human rights has been on display. Last October Tang Yuanjun (
It is interesting to note the silence of the pan-blue camp on the fate of these dissidents. The only politicians who have shown any concern are from the TSU. There was a a time when the pan-blue camp would welcome "anti-communist heroes." Now it is conspiring with China in the destruction of this nation's democracy, it isn't interested.
But the real source of disgust over this country's attitude to both Xu and Tang comes from the suspicion that the reluctance to take them in comes from a desire to appease China. If so then this attitude can only be roundly condemned. It is deplorable if this nation is prepared to trade human-rights principles for a cozier relationship with the dictators next door. Let's be honest: the democratization of China, the replacement of the vicious clique that tyrannizes that luckless foreign land by a democracy is, along with the US Seventh Fleet, probably Taiwan's only long- term hope. There is a natural unity of interest between the dissidents and this country. That the government cannot find a place for them here is a scandal.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS