Taiwan Matters! The PRC flag has never flown over Taiwan, and don't you forget it!

"Taiwan is not a province of China. The PRC flag has never flown over Taiwan."

Stick that in your clipboards and paste it, you so-called "lazy journalists"!

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

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Taiwanese impressions of China

Survey says...

This is the Taiwan Republic
This is the Taiwan Republic
(Click to enlarge)

A DPP survey released December 25, 2008 presents a picture of Taiwan that differs greatly from the one painted by the memes that pro-China media and other journos often present. Below is a CNA article on the subject [translations mine]:
綠營:五成六民眾認為兩岸不宜黨對黨協商

Green camp: 56% of the public think cross-strait talks should not be conducted on a "party-to-party" basis


民主進步黨民調中心主任陳俊麟今天指出,民進黨最新民調顯示,65.8%民眾認為政府尚未做好開放兩岸政策的配套措施;55.8%的民眾認為兩岸政策由黨對黨方式共同協商並不適當。

Chen Chun-lin (陳俊麟), director of the DPP's Public Opinion Survey Center, says today that a poll shows that 65.8% of respondents feel that the government has not done a good job with cross-strait policy so far. 55.8% feel that conducting cross-strait negotiations on a party-to-party basis is inappropriate.

民進黨中央公布「台灣民眾的中國印象」民調,陳俊麟做以上表示。

Announcing the results of a poll titled "The Taiwanese public's impressions of China," Chen Chun-lin had this to say.

民調顯示,民眾對於台灣與中國的關係,認為是「同一個國家」的比例只有2.7%,「同一個民族」為36.4%,「同一個文化」為28.1%,「完全沒關係」為28.4%。

On the question of the relationship between Taiwan and China, only 2.7% consider the two territories to be "one country." 36.4% feel that the people of Taiwan and China are the "same ethnicity." 28.1% believe the people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait share a "common culture." 28.4% say "there is no relationship whatsoever."

此外,民眾對於中國的印象,認為「友善的」比例為32.2%,「敵意的」為56.8%;「民主的」比例為8.9%,「專制的」比例為85.1%。

Furthermore, 32.2% consider China to be "friendly," while 56.8% feel that it is "hostile" towards Taiwan. 8.9% consider China to be a "democracy" while 85.1% think of China as a "dictatorship."

這份民調調查日期為12月23日至24日,完成數為1105人,抽樣誤差約為正負3.0%;主要針對20歲以上具有投票權的公民,以電話號碼隨機抽樣。

The poll was conducted on December 23 - 24 with a total of 1,105 respondents. The margin of error is plus or minus about 3.0%. The polling sample was gathered using random phone numbers and targeted citizens over the age of 20 who have the right to vote.
To summarize, a majority of Taiwanese people see Taiwan and China as two separate countries and consider themselves as having a different culture and ethnicity from the people across the Strait. If you, too, want to be able to see through the bullshit about China's "goodwill" or the so-called "panda-mania," just remember the missiles.

1,400 missiles plus 2 pandas still equals hatred!
1,400 missiles... plus 2 pandas... equals... "goodwill"?
(Click to enlarge)

TAIWAN IS NOT CHINA - Taiwan be Taiwan
Something that is known by the great majority of Taiwanese
(Click to enlarge)

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Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

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Disguised student caught on Wild Strawberry protest site

A guy disguised as a student infiltrated to the Wild Strawberry Movement (WSM) camp and stole a laptop that students use to operate their movement:

At about 9 am on 13 December, a student surnamed Lai found their notebook computer was missing. Workers of the Wild Strawberry Movement, after obtaining the agreement of everyone present, began to check through the personal belongings at the site. They then found the student Lai's computer under the jacket of a man claiming to be a student from Fu Jen University's Chinese Department.

Because of the principle of presumption of innocence, students of the Wild Strawberry Movement first asked the man to explain why he had student Lai's computer. However, his words stuttered and he was unable to give a reasonable explanation. Therefore at approximately 9:30 am on the same day, the students of the Wild Strawberry Movement sought the assistance of a police officer at the site. They reported the incident to the police. When the police checked the man's ID it was discovered that the information he had given to the Wild Strawberry Movement was false. Furthermore, he was not a student in Fu Jen University's Chinese Department.

(see http://taiwanstudentmovement2008.blogspot.com/2008/12/1213.html)

This reminds me of another report.

The WSM insists 3 appeals: 1. President Ma and Premier Liu apologize; 2. Chiefs of National Police Agency and of National Security Bureau, Wang and Tsai, step down; 3. Amend The Parade and Assembly Law.

On Nov. 15th, 9 days into WSM's month long protest, Ma government tried to make students scale down their protest by dropping the first two appeals.

Besides asking teachers of those students to participate in the persuasion, the Ma's party, KMT, also did this:

國民黨青年團也「派員」參與學運,希望「鎖定議題」,只談「修法」,並對外釋出「下台和道歉」較難達到,只談修法的訊息。

KMT's Youth League also "sent member(s)" to participate the WSM. Hoping to "scale down the focus" to only the 3rd appeal, they spread words that it's much harder to achieve the goals of "apology" and "resign", so it's better to focus on the "law amending".



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Seeing Chen Shui-bian's so-called "money laundering" case from another angle

by Taiwan Echo and Tim Maddog

When the overseas deposits of former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁, AKA "A-bian") family -- said to be as high as 300 million US dollars -- were exposed couple of months ago, my instincts told me, A-bian will "die a horrible death" (to borrow Ma Ying-jeou's words). Forget about the insane hatred that pro-blue supporters have for A-bian. Simply because of the huge sum of the money, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will definitely crush him.

Below is how I see their "blue" print:

Chen Shui-bian claims that the money -- handled by his wife without his knowledge -- consists of leftover donations which came from his supporters during his election campaigns. If so, then the money would belong either to Chen himself or to the DPP -- the party that nominated Chen as a candidate. Whichever one of these it is, it's certain that the money belongs neither to the government nor to the Taiwanese public. And it certainly doesn't belong to the KMT.

But the KMT will most probably do everything it can to make that money their own. The only way they can do so -- in spite of the evidence -- is to use the judiciary tools that they control to fabricate the witnesses and evidence in order to pin the crime of corruption on A-bian. Only by adopting this approach can the KMT claim that the money should be "legally returned" to their hands (the current government, that is).

If we closely watch the investigation of A-bian's alleged "money laundering" over the past couple of months, here's what we see:

1. First, use politicians and pro-blue media to brainwash people into believing "A-bian is corrupt." No evidence is required. In fact the KMT has been applying the same tricks for years to conduct "trials by press" against pro-Taiwan people, so this is really nothing new.

2. Secondly, interrogate, detain, and/or arrest anybody you can -- whether connected to the case or not -- entice, threaten, or coerce them into becoming witnesses for the state by using approaches like, "If you testify that Chen Shui-bian took the money, we won't put you in jail."

Do you think this is unlikely? There are reports/video evidence that Taiwan police have threatened civilians with jail time: "If you don't shut up, I will put you in jail." When Chen Yunlin came to Taiwan, some Tibetans were threatened by the police, being told, "If you dare to go to the airport, you will be jailed for the rest of your life." (警威脅敢抗議 關你一輩子 (Protesters threatened by the police with life in jail))

So again, threats are a common tactic used by Taiwan's police.

3. To save their own asses, the people who have been threatened (for example, poor Yeh Sheng-mao, the former Chief of Investigation Bureau) eventually come up with some so-called evidence, maintaining the false illusion that the uncivilized KMT will somehow keep their promises to set them free.

4. After the fabricated evidence is collected and well-staged, the KMT takes those witnesses (who are no longer valuable to them), turns them into defendants, and gives them heavy sentences (look what happened to poor Yeh Sheng-mao!).

5. Even without any guilt or even a bit of evidence, they put Chen Shui-bian in jail for sure.

As the KMT continues this conspiracy, we will continue to see "witnesses becoming defendants after their statements are taken."

As a result, the KMT will claim that the large amount of foreign deposits owned by Chen Shui-bian's family actually "belongs to the government" -- the KMT-run government, that is.

Poor Yeh Sheng-mao


Earlier, when former Investigative Bureau chief Yeh Sheng-mao held a press conference to announce his decision to follow the attorney office's instructions to incriminate Chen Shui-bian, "The wife of my ex-boss persuaded me to follow the right path and be loyal to the country," I immediately thought: This time, he will be done for.

When you hear these kinds of "keywords" from Chinese culture -- like "persuading someone to follow the right path", "loyal to the country", etc. -- coming from the police or the judiciary system, you know that the moment of catastrophe is at your doorstep.

As I expected, even after Yeh Sheng-mao made statements that were unfavorable towards A-bian, he was still indicted and punished with a heavy sentence.

2008-9-25 :「北檢再傳葉盛茂 擬追訴涉洩密罪」
Taipei District Prosecutors' Office arraigns Yeh Sheng-mao again, intends to prosecute him for leaking secrets
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/sep/25/today-p7.htm

2008-10-4 :「追訴兩起洩密罪 葉盛茂被求重刑」
Prosecutors up the indictment on Yeh Sheng-mao and seak for heavy sentence
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/oct/4/today-p3.htm

2008-12-5 :「在葉盛茂重判10年 當庭癱軟」
Sentenced to 10 years in jail, Yeh Sheng-mao collapses in court
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/dec/5/today-p6.htm

In the last report cited,

"The judge describes in the official indictment document that, the fund of Chen's oversea deposit ***might*** contain some money from the state affairs fund." (highlight is mine)

"Might" contain some money from the state affairs fund? The court made its judgment based not on evidence but on this kind of guesses?!

The only reason I can come up with is that the KMT in fact couldn't find any evidence, but instead had to resort to the claim that "some of the money in Chen's overseas accounts **might** belong to the government," otherwise they will have no way to get their hands on the money.

There's another case where witnesses became defendants after their statements were taken:
2008-12-6 : 「蔡美利、陳俊英 證人改被告」
Tsai Mei-li and Chen Chun-ying, originally witnesses, become defendants
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/dec/6/today-p6-2.htm

Will Chen Chih-chung give his money to the KMT?


According to a report by Liberty Times, Chen Chih-chung, son of Chen Shui-bian, agreed to transfer those overseas money to the attorney's office
2008-11-27:「陳致中同意匯回7億 珍未反對」
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/nov/27/today-fo1.htm

Pay attention to the words below:

『檢方表示,陳致中夫婦同意匯款,可視為犯後態度的考量之一,至於是否在起訴書中建請法院從輕量刑或予緩刑,由於還沒偵結,言之過早。林志豪說,陳致中夫婦是在檢方要求建議下,口頭表示同意匯回款項』

"The attorney office says that the fact that Chen Shui-bian's son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) have agreed to turn in the money could be considered as a reason for leniency. But it's too early to suggest a reduced sentence to the court because the investigation is still underway. Lin Chih-hao (林志豪) said Chen Chih-chung and Huang had made a verbal agreement to turn in the money (Echo note: remitted to a bank account created by the attorney office), following a suggestion of the attorney's office."

What is so shocking is that the attorney's office bluntly claims that "whether the money is turned in or not" will be considered a factor in determining a sentence.

Before the attorney's office has even provided evidence proving that this is government's money -- which they haven't been able to do so even after months of investigations using the manpower of almost the entire judiciary system in Taiwan-- the money still legally belongs to Chen's family.

Why on earth should Chen Chih-chung and Huang give their legally-owned money to the KMT government in order to have a lighter sentence considered in a case where the defendant has not yet been judged "guillty" by the court?

Isn't that blatant extortion by the attorney's office?

According to what has been reported so far, Chen Chih-chung and Huang have agreed verbally to that suggestion. I believe, if Chen really transfers that money to the KMT, or even if the Chen family "donates" all their wealth they have earned after generations, in the end they will still be given heavy sentences.

If someone is too naive to recognize the brutal nature of the KMT -- if that person fantasizes that as long as they open their hearts (and pocketbooks) to the KMT, then the KMT will keep their promises -- then that person will eventually lose everything.

We can forget about whether "this money should be returned to Chen's supporters." If Chen Chih-chung is smart enough, he should keep that money, so that in the difficult days to come he might have the chance to buy his way out. But as soon as he turns in the money, he loses any leverage with which to negotiate and brings himself and his family to a very tragic end.

Dazed and confused Taiwanese


According to what is revealed about Taiwan history, it has been a common approach for the KMT to coerce someone into making a false accusation (for example, claiming that some innocent person is a communist bandit), then kill him after the statement is taken.

Certainly, we won't see someone getting killed over that nowadays. The KMT's approach is far more delicate in this informative era. However, the conspiracy tactic still works the same way and is enough to get Chen family lose everything. Seeing that same old drama revealed right in front of our eyes, it sends a chill up my spine.

But how do the DPP, pro-green supporters, pro-Taiwan scholars, and pro-Taiwan bloggers see this huge amount of money? This really bothers me.

It's been months since Chen's overseas accounts were exposed. But I don't see any concern regarding whether this is the money that DPP supporters donated to Chen. If it is to be returned, the recipient should be the DPP. It should never be "returned" to a KMT government.

For the DPP and for everyone fighting against pro-China authoritarianism, limited resources are always a problem. The source of financial support is even more crucial when what they are fighting is an organ that owns all the state power of a country and that dominates the public opinion with biased pro-state media at the same time.

It's therefore a puzzle for me that I see only the KMT government is launching almost the power of entire country to take that money into their pocket, but none of pro-green supporters has made any effort to get it back.

Is it because that pro-green has never thought about this? Or to them the money is dirty so they feel despicable to get their hands on it?

I don't get it.

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Saturday, December 13, 2008

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Former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian indicted

Money laundering, corruption, and forgery?

The Saturday Taipei Times has the details in English, fellow blogger Echo posts about it in Chinese, and if you've got the language ability and an iron stomach, here's the indictment itself (956 KB PDF file) -- all 208 pages of it.

The Friday night edition of Talking Show (大話新聞) also had a lengthy discussion of the topic. Readers of this blog who view the show should be aware that the hard copies possessed by both host Cheng Hung-yi (鄭弘儀) and guest Chen Ming-yi (陳明義) (Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] spokes-whiner) differ from the PDF I downloaded in more ways than one.

Remember, an indictment is not a verdict, and the suspect was detained at the Taipei Detention Center for an entire month before these official charges were even made.

Trumped-up charges: , , , , , , ,

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

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Sunday, December 07, 2008

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Will the world be watching?

Let's see what Mr. Ma is made of

野給你看--國家不暴力,人權向前進

At 12 noon on Sunday, December 7, 2008, starting from Taipei, Taiwan's Liberty Square (自由廣場), the student movement known as the Wild StrawBerries are planning a peaceful march to reiterate the following most-reasonable demands [edited for formatting, clarity, spelling, and completeness]:
1. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) must publicly apologize to all citizens [for creating the situation which allowed the police to treat protesters the way they did during Chen Yunlin's (陳雲林) visit to Taiwan].

2. National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) and National Security Bureau Director Tsai Chao-ming (蔡朝明) must step down [to take responsibility for the police brutality that occurred as a result of the massive police presence].

3. The Legislative Yuan (行政院) must revise the Parade and Assembly Law (集會遊行法), which currently restricts the rights of the people [and which are set to become even more repressive early in 2009]. [This is basically a simple demand for ""Freedom of Assembly."]
Anyone who agrees to wear black, to refrain from displaying any partisan slogans, and to refrain being violent is welcome to attend this protest. Since permission to hold this protest was denied the group hasn't even applied for permission (but have instead voluntarily reported the activity to police, in line with how they want the Parade and Assembly Law [集會遊行法] to be modified), it will therefore be an act of civil disobedience.

Even if you don't attend, please sign the Wild StrawBerries' online petition if you want democracy in Taiwan to remain within reach. It has already slipped way too far backward since the Ma administration took office on May 20, 2008.

Who else has got their backs?
The Ma government has come under heavy criticism from many international human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights, Reporters Without Borders, and others. Protests will also be taking place in Tokyo and Paris on Sunday in support of the Wild StrawBerries. Please support them any way you can.

道歉、下台、修法


RELATED LINKS:
* Watch the Wild StrawBerries practicing peaceful resistance (live on Justin.tv)

* The Wild StrawBerries' English blog

* The Wild StrawBerries' (野草莓運動) Mandarin blog

* A post by David Reid with images, links, and more details

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Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

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