Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan’s legal system and Chen

Bruce Jacobs 家博

Earlier this week I was one of the first foreigners to visit former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) at the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城). The visit was severely restricted. We saw Chen through two very thick panes of glass separated by insulating air as well as substantial vertical steel bars. No sound could penetrate this barrier and we talked with Chen though phones that were old and had a scratchy sound quality. As we could easily see, guards monitored our conversation.

Propaganda overshadows Dalai Lama

Taipei Times

The Dalai Lama is scheduled to leave today following a six-day visit comforting victims of Typhoon Morakot. The trip has provided a timely reminder of the increasing sway Beijing holds over many things, from the way the international media reports on certain subjects to Taiwanese politics and politicians.

One of the clearest examples of the former was the disproportionate amount of coverage given to a token number of pro-unification protesters who have followed the Nobel peace laureate.

The balance between the US, Japan and Taiwan

Sebo Koh 許世模

Though what the Japanese prime minister-elect said before the election was alarming, my prediction is that nothing much will change in Japan’s policy toward the US or Taiwan.

Yukio Hatoyama is chairman of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), a collection of anti-Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) factions whose ideology ranges from the extreme right to the extreme left.

Now the punishment begins

Taipei Times

It was evident from the very beginning that the Dalai Lama’s visit — though supposedly apolitical — would not be well received by Beijing. Forced into a corner by its mismanagement of Typhoon Morakot, the embattled administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had no choice but to grant the spiritual leader a visa, but attempted to mitigate a backlash by hinting that Ma and the Dalai Lama would not meet and dispatching a high-level Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) representative to Beijing.

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