Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Myanmar coup shows struggle for democracy

Tommy Lin 林逸民

Since Myanmar’s general election in November last year, the Burmese military had refused to rule out a coup if its complaints about election fraud were not addressed. In a series of predawn raids in Naypyidaw on Monday, soldiers detained Burmese State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Burmese President Win Myint, along with other National League for Democracy (NLD) party leaders.

Soon after, the military announced that it was imposing a one-year state of emergency, making Burmese Vice President Myint Swe acting president, who then handed power to Senior General Aung Hlaing. The news shook the world.

Judicial corruption demands action

Chin Heng-wei 金恒煒

Were it not for the Control Yuan, the massive judicial scandal involving allegations of corruption by former Supreme Court judge Shih Mu-chin (石木欽) and Chia Her Industrial president Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾) would have remained buried deep in multiple “black boxes.”

However, there is another important aspect to the story that is worthy of attention.

Memorial to Chen Wen-chen dedicated

Taipei Times

National Taiwan University president Kuan-Chung-ming, center, and guests attend the opening ceremony of the Dr Chen Wen-chen Incident Memorial Square at the university in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

A memorial in honor of democracy advocate Chen Wen-chen (陳文成) was officially inaugurated yesterday, as dignitaries and family members commemorated the mathematician who died under mysterious circumstances during the White Terror era.

No need to skimp on virus tests

Chin Ching 秦靖

When reporters at a recent news conference asked Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) why Taiwan’s nucleic acid test for diagnosing COVID-19 is 19 times more expensive than China’s version, he said: “The reason is that our test is more accurate.”

Beijing was not going to let such an “impudent” remark go unpunished and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) duly took the matter up in the following TAO news conference, pointedly referring to Taiwan’s minister of health and welfare as simply “that man.”

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