No sympathy, only contempt
Dear Johnny,
I’d like to attract your attention to a serious case of human rights abuse happening in Taiwan right now.
Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤), daughter of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), has been prevented from leaving the country to pursue studies in the US. This is a cruel blow to a woman born with a silver spoon in her mouth and who has had a privileged life. It was bound to upset her because it doesn’t allow her to do what she wants, as has always been the case — so it is obviously wrong.
The former president said he is worried she may take her kids and commit suicide if she isn’t allowed out of Taiwan. If she did this, it would be the fault of the judicial authorities in Taiwan for daring to apply the law to the family members of an ex-president, so they should let her go immediately and end all investigations.
But if they are guilty of perjury I hope she and all other members of the lying, stealing Chen gang (including serial criminal Chao Chien-ming, 趙建銘) are treated as harshly as the law allows. They weren’t satisfied with setting back Taiwan irreparably at a crucial time or stealing like kleptomaniacs; they also had to lie and keep on lying even when their lies started to fall apart. They should be made an example of, not just for making a mockery of the “justice” system, but also for setting a bad example.
As someone who broke a rule — a visa violation — and was banned for five years, with no string-pulling, leniency or excuses accepted, I am looking forward to Chen Hsing-yu et al getting the full force of the law as it can sometimes be applied.
Let’s see her shut up, admit guilt, tell the truth about the whole disgraceful mess her family has caused and take the punishment she deserves like an adult.
Her study plans are being interfered with? Oh, poor dear. Maybe she should have thought about that first.
I have no sympathy for them at all, only contempt.
Kev Lax
Johnny replies: Well, if you’re going to take sides, I guess this is the way to do it.
The conflict in the Middle East has been disrupting financial markets, raising concerns about rising inflationary pressures and global economic growth. One market that some investors are particularly worried about has not been heavily covered in the news: the private credit market. Even before the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global capital markets had faced growing structural pressure — the deteriorating funding conditions in the private credit market. The private credit market is where companies borrow funds directly from nonbank financial institutions such as asset management companies, insurance companies and private lending platforms. Its popularity has risen since
The Donald Trump administration’s approach to China broadly, and to cross-Strait relations in particular, remains a conundrum. The 2025 US National Security Strategy prioritized the defense of Taiwan in a way that surprised some observers of the Trump administration: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.” Two months later, Taiwan went entirely unmentioned in the US National Defense Strategy, as did military overmatch vis-a-vis China, giving renewed cause for concern. How to interpret these varying statements remains an open question. In both documents, the Indo-Pacific is listed as a second priority behind homeland defense and
Every analyst watching Iran’s succession crisis is asking who would replace supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yet, the real question is whether China has learned enough from the Persian Gulf to survive a war over Taiwan. Beijing purchases roughly 90 percent of Iran’s exported crude — some 1.61 million barrels per day last year — and holds a US$400 billion, 25-year cooperation agreement binding it to Tehran’s stability. However, this is not simply the story of a patron protecting an investment. China has spent years engineering a sanctions-evasion architecture that was never really about Iran — it was about Taiwan. The
In an op-ed published in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said that Taiwan should not have to choose between aligning with Beijing or Washington, and advocated for cooperation with Beijing under the so-called “1992 consensus” as a form of “strategic ambiguity.” However, Cheng has either misunderstood the geopolitical reality and chosen appeasement, or is trying to fool an international audience with her doublespeak; nonetheless, it risks sending the wrong message to Taiwan’s democratic allies and partners. Cheng stressed that “Taiwan does not have to choose,” as while Beijing and Washington compete, Taiwan is strongest when