Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Unlike authoritarian China, which does not want its citizens to have their voices heard, Taiwan has adopted referendums, which not only allow the public to make its views known, but are also an essential mechanism to consolidate democracy.

Referendum results carry weight. However, for Taiwan, being a young democracy, the process of petitioning for referendums is just as important to deepening its democracy. The fairness of the bottom-up process of public participation in direct democracy on matters of national importance must be ensured. It cannot be allowed to be manipulated to obtain certain outcomes.

Earlier this month, Typhoon Jebi battered Japan’s Kansai region. As a result of fake news created by the Chinese government in collaboration with pro-unification advocates in Taiwan, Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), who was director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office’s Osaka branch, was pushed over the edge and took his own life — the only Taiwanese casualty of the typhoon.

However, not even Su’s suicide put an end to the political war of words.