Although all eyes were on Tuesday’s meeting between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平), a few incidents that took place before the meeting boded ill for anyone who expected the KMT to demonstrate values that would show that as a party from democratic Taiwan it was different from the CCP.
Reporters from the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), Taiwanese online media outlet Up Media and the Taiwan office of Hong Kong’s Mirror Weekly were allowed to enter China for the annual KMT-CCP Cross-strait Peace Development Forum. However, on Monday they received calls from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) informing them that their press passes for the Hung-Xi meeting had been revoked because of “limited space.”
“Limited space” is not a convincing excuse, especially when all the reporters had registered with the TAO. Even if it was a legitimate reason, why those three outlets were excluded was never specified. The Chinese authorities must believe — as they always do — that they are not obliged to provide credible explanations for the decisions they make, however arbitrary.
While the Chinese government’s arbitrariness and low transparency are a given, the KMT — which for years touted itself as the rightful ruler of a “free China” and now claims to represent the people of a democratized Taiwan — should not view it as a norm.
And yet, from what is known, the KMT has failed to lodge any formal protest with Beijing for restricting Taiwanese reporters’ rights. Worse still, KMT Central Policy Committee executive director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) on Monday brushed the matter aside, saying it “had nothing to do with freedom of press” because “many other media outlets were allowed to report on [the meeting],” so the information was transparent enough for the public.
He said the TAO had “also placed restrictions on the [Chinese] media,” according to the Central News Agency.
Tsai’s response was absurd. He proposed redefining the freedom of the press, gladly buying the Chinese authority’s justification. He surely knew that the Chinese-language Apple Daily’s reporters’ permit requests in China have repeatedly been rejected by Beijing. This time was no exception, as its reporters reportedly traveled to Beijing on tourist visas.
Since when does picking media outlets you favor to print your news fall short of being a freedom of the press violation?
Tsai’s “Chinese media also got blocked” pretext is all the more infuriating and appalling because it is well known that Beijing has been persecuting Chinese reporters and imposing censorship on the nation’s press and publishing industry. Is the fact that Chinese journalists have constantly suffered from government intervention really a good justification, in Tsai’s eyes, for an arbitrary dismissal that should be universally condemned?
It also turned out that the start of the Hung-Xi meeting was changed from 3pm to 4pm, reportedly because the CCP was not happy that the KMT on Monday unilaterally announced the meeting time.
The KMT also probably did not object when a person waving a Republic of China flag in Nanjing was escorted away by the police.
Trivial as these incidents might seem, they show that the KMT is completely under the sway of Beijing, which is sad to witness for those who remember how it once fervently trumpeted an anti-CCP mantra, believing it could replace the CCP one day.
Speaking at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on May 13, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that democracies must remain united and that “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism.” Earlier that day, Tsai had met with a group of Danish parliamentarians led by Danish Parliament Speaker Pia Kjaersgaard, who has visited Taiwan many times, most recently in November last year, when she met with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office. Kjaersgaard had told Lai: “I can assure you that ... you can count on us. You can count on our support
Denmark has consistently defended Greenland in light of US President Donald Trump’s interests and has provided unwavering support to Ukraine during its war with Russia. Denmark can be proud of its clear support for peoples’ democratic right to determine their own future. However, this democratic ideal completely falls apart when it comes to Taiwan — and it raises important questions about Denmark’s commitment to supporting democracies. Taiwan lives under daily military threats from China, which seeks to take over Taiwan, by force if necessary — an annexation that only a very small minority in Taiwan supports. Denmark has given China a
Many local news media over the past week have reported on Internet personality Holger Chen’s (陳之漢) first visit to China between Tuesday last week and yesterday, as remarks he made during a live stream have sparked wide discussions and strong criticism across the Taiwan Strait. Chen, better known as Kuan Chang (館長), is a former gang member turned fitness celebrity and businessman. He is known for his live streams, which are full of foul-mouthed and hypermasculine commentary. He had previously spoken out against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and criticized Taiwanese who “enjoy the freedom in Taiwan, but want China’s money”
A high-school student surnamed Yang (楊) gained admissions to several prestigious medical schools recently. However, when Yang shared his “learning portfolio” on social media, he was caught exaggerating and even falsifying content, and his admissions were revoked. Now he has to take the “advanced subjects test” scheduled for next month. With his outstanding performance in the general scholastic ability test (GSAT), Yang successfully gained admissions to five prestigious medical schools. However, his university dreams have now been frustrated by the “flaws” in his learning portfolio. This is a wake-up call not only for students, but also teachers. Yang did make a big
RSS