Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan's Double Standard: Money, Money, Who's Got the Money Part I?

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

In a previous post you saw how Chen Shui-bian has been in jail for nearly two years on corruption charges concerning US$21 million from his eight years of presidency. The courts have yet not stated and/or proved just how much of that money is illegal and how much is rightfully his, according to the loose and vague laws concerning campaign donations. They are operating on the presumption that some amount of it (though they have not yet specifically proven it) is illegal and therefore they are justifying keeping him in jail. In the meantime, the prosecutors are also badgering, harassing, and interfering with the lives of many associated with Chen to try and get some one of them to create evidence for their case. Contrast that with the following that was just in the news about the infamous Chung Hsing Bills affair that broke just before the 2000 presidential elections.

Ma is whittling sovereignty away

Liberty Times Editorial

On Wednesday, China once again put conditions on the government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). This time it was Wang Yi (王毅), director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, who set the conditions by saying that, as long as the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can work together to oppose Taiwanese independence and uphold the “1992 consensus,” that will be the political guarantee for cross-strait cooperation.

The vendor and the president

Taipei Times Editorial

By now almost everyone in Taiwan must be aware of the story of Chen Shu-chu (陳樹菊).

Chen, a single woman who only completed elementary school, has spent the best part of her life selling vegetables at her local market in Taitung, donating a staggering NT$10 million (US$315,000) to local charities in the process.

‘Peace talks’ with PRC a trap — just ask Tibet

Peng Ming-min 彭明敏

It has recently been suggested that Taiwan should sign a “peace agreement” with China in the belief it will help reduce tensions in the Taiwan Strait. In general, the term “peace agreement” refers to anything aimed at bringing an end to a bloody conflict such as an armistice signed by warring states, a ceasefire agreement between two sides in a civil war or methods to resolve a border dispute with a neighboring nation. Not one of the 192 member nations of the UN has signed any form of “peace agreement” with Taiwan and yet still somehow manage to peacefully coexist with Taiwan. The one exception is of course China.

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