Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Politics’ #MeToo moment begins

Taipei Times Editorials

Even though the #MeToo movement was started by US activist Tarana Burke in 2006, Taiwan’s political world has just begun to see its first #MeToo reckoning.

The #MeToo movement gained traction when a former gymnast accused a former coach of sexual assault while she was a junior-high student. The 2017 suicide of Lin Yi-han (林奕含), who turned her experience of alleged sexual assault by a cram school teacher into a novel, also caused an uproar.

The two incidents have encouraged other people to reveal misconduct by teachers and coaches, sparking reform in sports and education.

Taiwan faces its #MeToo moment

Sammuel Tung 董昱輝

The #MeToo movement was started by activist Tarana Burke, who coined the term in 2006. However, it gained traction in 2017, when actress Alyssa Milano urged victims of sexual harassment and assault to share their stories on social media.

Several celebrities did so, as did millions of others in the years that followed. The results were far-reaching — scores of formerly powerful men have been toppled after being accused of sexual assault and harassment, such as movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

The movement is now spreading in Taiwan’s political world. The movement started after a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) worker in an online post detailed how DPP deputy secretary-general Hsu Chia-tien (許嘉恬) poured cold water on her pleas for help after being sexually harassed and dissuaded her from seeking a full investigation into the incident.

Party urges review of infiltration bill

Taipei Times

The Taiwan Statebuilding Party, alongside Kuma Academy chief executive officer Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) and international law expert Sung Cheng-en (宋承恩), yesterday urged the Legislative Yuan to begin reviewing a proposed foreign influence transparency law to prevent Chinese infiltration.

Taiwanese should not tolerate the legislature’s indolence, party Chairman Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) said.

The ruling and opposition parties are passive regarding efforts to mitigate the influence of Chinese “united front” rhetoric, said Wu Hsin-tai (吳欣岱), director of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party’s Taipei chapter.

Responding to China’s cyberthreat

Taipei Times Editorials

Microsoft on Thursday revealed that it had detected a campaign by China-backed hackers targeting civilian and government infrastructure in the US and its territory of Guam. The report was quickly confirmed by Western intelligence agencies. Some have said the campaign could be part of efforts to delay a US or other allied response to a possible Chinese attack against Taiwan.

The campaign was discovered following the detection of mysterious computer code in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the US. The discovery prompted Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK to issue cybersecurity alerts against similar campaigns targeting their systems.

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