When a legislator, grilling Taiwan's representative to Japan Lo Fu-chen (
"Is it a mark against me that I was educated during Japanese colonial rule?" the 66-year-old Lo asked.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING
But it was not the first time that Lo had been defamed.
From the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, Lo was blacklisted by the KMT government for advocating Taiwan independence. In 1983, after his testimony at a hearing in the US Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations on Taiwan's international legal status and US policy regarding Taiwan and national self-determination, China described him as "a running dog to US colonial power," Lo recalled.
"Without roots, life requires courage," Lo said, recalling a quotation he remembered from high school days to sum up his experience as a Taiwanese dissident overseas from the 1960s until the 1990s.
As a dissident, Lo indeed led a life "without roots" for a few decades, drifting between the US and Japan until the early 1990s when the government ended its policy of blacklisting advocates of Taiwan independence.
But Lo was to succeed academically in exile, earning his master's degree from Japan's Waseda University in 1963 and his PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968.
Although Taiwan lost its seat in the UN in 1971, Lo became a UN official in 1973, retiring last April, as the deputy director of the Tokyo-based Institute of Advanced Studies at the UN University.
"I have never tried to find a job for myself throughout my life," Lo said.
During an international seminar held in Canada in 1973 in which he presented an academic paper, a UN official asked him whether he would like to join the organization, to work as chief of comparative studies at the Tokyo-based UN Center for Regional Development (UNCRD).
But the fact that he did not hold a passport, since this had been revoked by the Taiwan authorities to whom he was persona non grata, created obstacles.
"The UN said it would create problems if I didn't have a nationality. So in 1973 I applied for both a US as well as a UN passport. It was with the UN passport that I worked in Japan," Lo said.
Over the years, Lo was involved in UN programs related to issues such as sustainable development, globalization, arms reduction in the post Cold War era and urbanization.
Lo also visited China many times from the early 1980s in his capacity as a UN official, organizing UN conferences on issues such as regional development or offering advice on China's economic reforms.
With his long work experience with the UN and his 20-year residence in Japan, Lo laments what he sees as Taiwan's ignorance of its neighboring countries, including Japan, and urged officials and citizens of Taiwan to reach out for their counterparts in the region.
"Whether you like Japan or not, you have to understand Japan first," Lo said.
In the wake of the recent dispute in Taiwan surrounding the comic book On Taiwan (
"Taiwan's media, politicians and legislators should visit Japan more often and try to observe all of its political behavior, from right to left, so that they can have a full picture of Japan. This process is very important, otherwise you could find yourself dominated by one particular cartoonist," Lo added.
Lo has found his connections with the region's top-ranking officials and academics useful in his current job.
"In the past, I met a lot of Japanese officials at the ministerial and legislative levels who were participating in UN-related activities. This was not limited to Japan. I was quite exposed to many parts of Asia," said Lo, who used to advise the governments of Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines on development issues.
His personal networks established throughout the years seem to have yielded dividends for Taiwan. His alma mater, Waseda University, will in April begin a course on Taiwan for graduate students, a course for which Lo's office in Japan has lobbied. Lo has given lectures at Waseda University over the years since he first received his master's degree.
As a member of the World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI) since 1970, previously a US-based organization supporting Taiwan independence, Lo found it impossible to reject President Chen Shui-bian's (
"President Chen wanted me to do this job, so I felt I should definitely support him," Lo said. "Right now I have to represent my country's interests. Previously, I was just doing my job as an international civil servant."
Lo is not the only dissident on the diplomatic front line. Others include Lee Ying-yuan (
"I cooked for him [Chen] when he first came to the University of Pennsylvania in 1963," Lo recalled on Thursday evening before attending a farewell party for his old friend who will leave for his new post this month.
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