Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Lai pledges to fight authoritarianism

Taipei Times

President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday told visiting US lawmakers that Taipei would work with Washington to counter “authoritarian expansionism,” days after China staged major military drills around Taiwan.

Lai has been labeled by Beijing as a “traitor” and “saboteur of peace and stability” since he vowed to defend the nation’s sovereignty and democracy in his inaugural speech on Monday last week.

Three days after he was sworn into office, warships and fighter jets encircled Taiwan in drills China said were “punishment” for Lai’s “confession of Taiwan independence” and a test of its ability to seize control of the nation.

Cast the democracy vandals out

Liu Shih-ming 劉熙明

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have disregarded procedural justice and disguised their attempt at a power grab as legislative reforms, which has sparked a public outcry.

More than 100,000 people, without being mobilized by any political parties or being led by a specific person, gathered outside the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week in opposition to the controversial reform bills.

The protest has been called the Qingniao movement (bluebird movement, 青鳥運動), named after Qingdao E Road (青島東路) where the protest took place. “Qing” means blue and “dao” contains an element meaning “bird” in Chinese. It is the biggest social movement in Taiwan since the Sunflower movement.

KMT, TPP pass controversial measures

Taipei Times

The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed bills proposed by opposition lawmakers that would increase legislators’ oversight of the government as thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the venue to protest the changes.

The legislature passed the amendments to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) after a day of raucous debates and scuffles between the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which saw one lawmaker’s T-shirt ripped.

Progress on passing revisions to the act had been slow earlier in the day, as the DPP made legislators go through all 77 articles of the act — even those not being changed — as a stalling tactic.

Law in Taiwan, the US and Germany

Huan Tong-shong 黃東熊

During a Constitutional Court session last month assessing the constitutionality of the death penalty, one grand justice told a Ministry of Justice official that a trial cannot be influenced by public opinion — in other words, a ruling should remain free from public whim.

I have found that views on the matter vary greatly based on a person’s educational background. Those who have received a formal law education in Germany believe that sentencing should be formed independently, both from those in power and the public.

By contrast, those trained in law in the US think that sentencing is inseparable from public opinion, and that all three powers — the executive, legislative and judicial — should yield to the public’s will.

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