Statement of support for Lee Ming-tsung

Prof. Lee Ming-tsung
image (cc) 楊竣傑
via 生命力新聞

Statement
We, the bloggers of Taiwan Matters, stand in solidarity with National Taiwan University Professor Lee Ming-tsung (李明璁) following his indictment last month on charges of violating the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法).

Professor Lee participated in a protest in November 2008 with a group of students which later came to be known as the "Wild StrawBerries Movement." They had three specific demands [edited here for formatting, clarity, spelling, and completeness]:

1. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) must publicly apologize to all citizens [for creating the situation which allowed the police to treat protesters the way they did during Chen Yunlin's (陳雲林) visit to Taiwan].

2. National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) and National Security Bureau Director Tsai Chao-ming (蔡朝明) must step down [to take responsibility for the police brutality that occurred as a result of the massive police presence].

3. The Legislative Yuan (行政院) must revise the Parade and Assembly Law (集會遊行法), which currently restricts the rights of the people [and which are set to become even more repressive early in 2009]. [This is basically a simple demand for "Freedom of Assembly."]

If there had been sufficient reason to charge Professor Lee, it could have been done at the time of the protest instead of seven months later.

In the interim, political persecution, threats, and violence have with increasing frequency been carried out against those who are active in their opposition to the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration's policies of moving politically closer to China and reversing the progress made during Taiwan's transition to sovereign democracy over the past twenty years.

The current administration has severely undermined the integrity of Taiwan's judicial system with its continued detention of former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) while justice officials perform skits mocking the defendant. Despite President Ma's promises that he would reform the Assembly and Parade Act, all indications are that it will become a stricter law than it was previously.

In fact, more laws infringing on free speech are being passed. One example is the Act Governing the Administrative Impartiality of Public Officials (公務人員行政中立法):

The Act prohibits academics from wearing or displaying flags or emblems of any political parties or groups at teachers' or researchers' offices. It also prohibits academics from convening demonstrations, launching signature bids and the editing, printing or distribution of political flyers or related documents using public equipment at public offices. The Examination Yuan and the Executive Yuan are also authorized to impose more bans through administrative orders.

The indictment of Professor Lee is yet another example to add to the ever-growing list of partisan indictments which strongly suggest systemized political persecution. There is no political capital to be gained by such actions, except perhaps in Beijing.

What we need in Taiwan is justice, not the "just us" mentality that is currently being demonstrated by the Ma administration.

To summarize, we stand behind Professor Lee Ming-tsung in his rational, nonviolent attempts to defend and deepen Taiwan's democracy. As long as the current government's policies continue to carry us backward toward an authoritarian past, the protests are likely to grow.

Signed,
The Taiwan Matters blog team

Participate
Others who wish to "sign" this statement can do so in the comments section below or let us know by e-mail (address is in the sidebar).

FURTHER READING/VIEWING:
Learn more about the controversial practices of the current judicial system.

* The Alliance for Democracy and Human Rights (捍衛民主人權陣線) harshly criticizes the Ma administration and shows strong support for Professor Lee as well as for National Taiwan Normal University (國立台灣師範大學) Professor Lin Chia-fan (林佳範) in the wake of his indictment on charges similar to those being pressed against Professor Lee.

* The Monday, July 13, 2009 edition of the Taipei Times has an editorial piece by Chiu Hei-yuan (瞿海源) called "The Act that silences academics."

* The Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Taipei Times reports that "More than 120 academics and human rights activists said yesterday they would turn themselves in to prosecutors for breaking the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) in a protest against the legislation." Read all about it in an article titled "Activists, academics 'surrender' to protest law."

* The full text of the new Act Governing the Administrative Impartiality of Public Officials (公務人員行政中立法) can be read in English on Brock Freeman's blog.

* Read David Reid's recent post on how the Assembly Law attacks freedom of speech.

* Taiwan Echo blogs in English and Hanzi on the illegal reasoning behind the latest extension of the detention of Chen Shui-bian: Lawless Taipei District Court extends Chen's detention based on illegal taping; 目無法紀的蔡守訓與台北地院用違法盜錄的看守所對話延長對扁的羈押

* Read a March 2009 statement from Chen Shui-bian (translated into English) which mentions interference by Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰).

* Watch Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng in August 2008 publicly discussing details of the ongoing investigation into the case against Chen Shui-bian as covered by New Taiwan Forum (新台灣論壇), FTV (民視新聞台), and Talking Show (大話新聞).

* Read Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng's denial of what you see happening in the three video clips above.

(Written by all current team members, posted by Tim Maddog.)

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Tags: Taiwan, 台灣, Lee Ming-tsung, 李明璁, Assembly and Parade Act, 集會遊行法, Ministry of Justice, 法務部, Wang Ching-feng, 王清峰, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

The injustice of Chen Shui-bian's detention

When they come for you, will there be anyone left to speak up?

Friend of Taiwan Luby Liao has a petition online demanding the immediate release of former President Chen Shui-Bian (陳水扁). The text of the petition reads as follows:

We the undersigned decry the increasing abuse of power by Taiwan's Ministry of Justice and its prosecutors as they violate the human rights of Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian and deny him due process of law in the current case against him. While neither making a judgment as to the guilt or innocence of Chen, we are appalled at the way that he is being unduly imprisoned (over 160 days and counting) as well as how his attorney-client privileges have been violated. In contrast to numerous past violators of money-laundering from the opposite political camp who have either never been detained or have received only a slap on the wrist by the courts when found guilty, Chen is being hounded and persecuted in what is an apparent political vendetta.

We hereby condemn the persecution and the violation of human rights conducted by the justice system and demand that Chen be released immediately.

Here's my own contribution (I'm #43) plus links that I didn't include in the original [as usual, hover your cursor on the links for more info]:

From the recording of Chen's conversations with his lawyers, to the judges' skit mocking Chen, to the one-sided leaks of information to the pro-KMT-dominated media, to the release of a wanted criminal who made statements against Chen, to the switching of the presiding judge to the same one who declared Ma Ying-jeou innocent (in a case where Ma admitted to depositing around NT$15 million of what he called "public funds" into his personal bank account) [Correction: "only" about NT$11 million went into his and his wife's accounts, but another NT$80,000/month (times eight years = NT$7,680,000) was used "to reward staff members," too], to the latest tacked-on charges, to punishing Chen for using hunger strikes to protest this kangaroo court, this has been a total travesty of justice.

On the blog with the petition, you can also sign up for the "I Love Taiwan" Google Group.

Why should I speak up?
If you have any doubts whatsoever, perhaps a reminder of the words of Martin Niemöller will help you make up your mind:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.

Now's your chance. Say something.

---

John Hancocks: Taiwan, 台灣, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, special allowance fund, 特支費, petition, 簽署

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Ma Ying-jeou's approval rating is down again

Stuck in a rut

A new survey released just yesterday which was conducted by the pro-blue Global Views Magazine puts President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) approval rating at 28.6% [648 KB PDF file] -- down 5.9 percentage points from last month's 34.5% [316 KB PDF file].

Back at the Ma-World Theme Park, this might be considered a "bounce," since his approval rating in October 2008 was only 23.6% -- about the same as TVBS says [156 KB PDF file] Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) current approval rating is.

BTW, the Global Views survey listed above gives Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (Ma's party) legislators an overall approval rating of only 19.9%.

Worst. Legislators. Evah.

Who's your daddy?
Keep in mind that all of the polls quoted above favor Ma and the KMT -- while book sales recently put Chen at #1:

When I photographed this in February 2009,
Chen Shui-bian's book "Taiwan's Cross" (台灣的十字架) was
in the number one spot at Eslite Bookstore (誠品書店),
beating Barack Obama's "Dreams from My Father."
(Click to enlarge)
Who's the failest [sic] of them all?
At a press conference today, Ma had this to say in response to a reporter's question about his "political achievements" behind the low approval rating he has just 10 months in office [transcription via SETN, translation mine]:

我們覺得大的方向都是正確的 但是溝通的工作應該更加強。

We believe that we're moving mostly in the right direction, but we need to work harder at communicating.

Ma seems to have been consulting his "magic mirror" again.

Expect even more mendacious propaganda.

---

Nodes: Taiwan, 台灣, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, surveys, 民調

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Deep thoughts, February 15, 2009

Number one bestseller (Humanities & Science)

No matter what the pro-China/pro-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) media want you to believe, Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is still not "unpopular."


Chen Shui-bian's book "Taiwan's Cross" (台灣的十字架) is
in the number one spot at Eslite Bookstore (誠品書店),
beating Barack Obama's "Dreams from My Father."
(Click to enlarge)

---

Literary limnings: Taiwan, 台灣, deep thoughts, 深思, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, book, 書本

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Who controls Taiwan's courts?

Chen vs. Chen

In the "final ruling" of a slander case filed by Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) against Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) because the latter said regarding the March 19, 2004 shooting of the former that "the shooting case must have been staged," Chen Chao-min was found "not guilty."

High court spokesman Wen Yao-yuan (溫耀源) said that it didn't amount to slander because Chen Chao-min's statement was in line with the findings of the [unconstitutional] "319 Truth Commission" (319 槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會) [MORE: 1, 2, 3] (led by now-Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng [王清峰] -- who once told a reporter that the commission didn't have the money to come up with any evidence [!]).

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) appointees once again make groundless allegations with impunity, but Wang Ching-feng pretends that the KMT can't control the courts. She takes the public for fools. Personally, I hope that the Taiwanese never forget what former president of the Executive Yuan, Hsu Shui-teh (KMT), once said: "The courts belong to us." ("法院是我們家[國民黨]開的.")

---

Exhibits for the defense: Taiwan, 台灣, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, 319 Truth Commission, 319 槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會, Chen Chao-min, 陳肇敏, judiciary, 司法

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Seeing Chen Shui-bian's so-called "money laundering" case from another angle

by Taiwan Echo and Tim Maddog

When the overseas deposits of former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁, AKA "A-bian") family -- said to be as high as 300 million US dollars -- were exposed couple of months ago, my instincts told me, A-bian will "die a horrible death" (to borrow Ma Ying-jeou's words). Forget about the insane hatred that pro-blue supporters have for A-bian. Simply because of the huge sum of the money, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will definitely crush him.

Below is how I see their "blue" print:

Chen Shui-bian claims that the money -- handled by his wife without his knowledge -- consists of leftover donations which came from his supporters during his election campaigns. If so, then the money would belong either to Chen himself or to the DPP -- the party that nominated Chen as a candidate. Whichever one of these it is, it's certain that the money belongs neither to the government nor to the Taiwanese public. And it certainly doesn't belong to the KMT.

But the KMT will most probably do everything it can to make that money their own. The only way they can do so -- in spite of the evidence -- is to use the judiciary tools that they control to fabricate the witnesses and evidence in order to pin the crime of corruption on A-bian. Only by adopting this approach can the KMT claim that the money should be "legally returned" to their hands (the current government, that is).

If we closely watch the investigation of A-bian's alleged "money laundering" over the past couple of months, here's what we see:

1. First, use politicians and pro-blue media to brainwash people into believing "A-bian is corrupt." No evidence is required. In fact the KMT has been applying the same tricks for years to conduct "trials by press" against pro-Taiwan people, so this is really nothing new.

2. Secondly, interrogate, detain, and/or arrest anybody you can -- whether connected to the case or not -- entice, threaten, or coerce them into becoming witnesses for the state by using approaches like, "If you testify that Chen Shui-bian took the money, we won't put you in jail."

Do you think this is unlikely? There are reports/video evidence that Taiwan police have threatened civilians with jail time: "If you don't shut up, I will put you in jail." When Chen Yunlin came to Taiwan, some Tibetans were threatened by the police, being told, "If you dare to go to the airport, you will be jailed for the rest of your life." (警威脅敢抗議 關你一輩子 (Protesters threatened by the police with life in jail))

So again, threats are a common tactic used by Taiwan's police.

3. To save their own asses, the people who have been threatened (for example, poor Yeh Sheng-mao, the former Chief of Investigation Bureau) eventually come up with some so-called evidence, maintaining the false illusion that the uncivilized KMT will somehow keep their promises to set them free.

4. After the fabricated evidence is collected and well-staged, the KMT takes those witnesses (who are no longer valuable to them), turns them into defendants, and gives them heavy sentences (look what happened to poor Yeh Sheng-mao!).

5. Even without any guilt or even a bit of evidence, they put Chen Shui-bian in jail for sure.

As the KMT continues this conspiracy, we will continue to see "witnesses becoming defendants after their statements are taken."

As a result, the KMT will claim that the large amount of foreign deposits owned by Chen Shui-bian's family actually "belongs to the government" -- the KMT-run government, that is.

Poor Yeh Sheng-mao

Earlier, when former Investigative Bureau chief Yeh Sheng-mao held a press conference to announce his decision to follow the attorney office's instructions to incriminate Chen Shui-bian, "The wife of my ex-boss persuaded me to follow the right path and be loyal to the country," I immediately thought: This time, he will be done for.

When you hear these kinds of "keywords" from Chinese culture -- like "persuading someone to follow the right path", "loyal to the country", etc. -- coming from the police or the judiciary system, you know that the moment of catastrophe is at your doorstep.

As I expected, even after Yeh Sheng-mao made statements that were unfavorable towards A-bian, he was still indicted and punished with a heavy sentence.

2008-9-25 ：「北檢再傳葉盛茂 擬追訴涉洩密罪」
Taipei District Prosecutors' Office arraigns Yeh Sheng-mao again, intends to prosecute him for leaking secrets
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/sep/25/today-p7.htm

2008-10-4 ：「追訴兩起洩密罪 葉盛茂被求重刑」
Prosecutors up the indictment on Yeh Sheng-mao and seak for heavy sentence
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/oct/4/today-p3.htm

2008-12-5 ：「在葉盛茂重判10年 當庭癱軟」
Sentenced to 10 years in jail, Yeh Sheng-mao collapses in court
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/dec/5/today-p6.htm

In the last report cited,

"The judge describes in the official indictment document that, the fund of Chen's oversea deposit ***might*** contain some money from the state affairs fund." (highlight is mine)

"Might" contain some money from the state affairs fund? The court made its judgment based not on evidence but on this kind of guesses?!

The only reason I can come up with is that the KMT in fact couldn't find any evidence, but instead had to resort to the claim that "some of the money in Chen's overseas accounts **might** belong to the government," otherwise they will have no way to get their hands on the money.

There's another case where witnesses became defendants after their statements were taken:
2008-12-6 ： 「蔡美利、陳俊英 證人改被告」
Tsai Mei-li and Chen Chun-ying, originally witnesses, become defendants
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/dec/6/today-p6-2.htm

Will Chen Chih-chung give his money to the KMT?

According to a report by Liberty Times, Chen Chih-chung, son of Chen Shui-bian, agreed to transfer those overseas money to the attorney's office
2008-11-27：「陳致中同意匯回7億 珍未反對」
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/nov/27/today-fo1.htm

Pay attention to the words below:

『檢方表示，陳致中夫婦同意匯款，可視為犯後態度的考量之一，至於是否在起訴書中建請法院從輕量刑或予緩刑，由於還沒偵結，言之過早。林志豪說，陳致中夫婦是在檢方要求建議下，口頭表示同意匯回款項』

"The attorney office says that the fact that Chen Shui-bian's son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) have agreed to turn in the money could be considered as a reason for leniency. But it's too early to suggest a reduced sentence to the court because the investigation is still underway. Lin Chih-hao (林志豪) said Chen Chih-chung and Huang had made a verbal agreement to turn in the money (Echo note: remitted to a bank account created by the attorney office), following a suggestion of the attorney's office."

What is so shocking is that the attorney's office bluntly claims that "whether the money is turned in or not" will be considered a factor in determining a sentence.

Before the attorney's office has even provided evidence proving that this is government's money -- which they haven't been able to do so even after months of investigations using the manpower of almost the entire judiciary system in Taiwan-- the money still legally belongs to Chen's family.

Why on earth should Chen Chih-chung and Huang give their legally-owned money to the KMT government in order to have a lighter sentence considered in a case where the defendant has not yet been judged "guillty" by the court?

Isn't that blatant extortion by the attorney's office?

According to what has been reported so far, Chen Chih-chung and Huang have agreed verbally to that suggestion. I believe, if Chen really transfers that money to the KMT, or even if the Chen family "donates" all their wealth they have earned after generations, in the end they will still be given heavy sentences.

If someone is too naive to recognize the brutal nature of the KMT -- if that person fantasizes that as long as they open their hearts (and pocketbooks) to the KMT, then the KMT will keep their promises -- then that person will eventually lose everything.

We can forget about whether "this money should be returned to Chen's supporters." If Chen Chih-chung is smart enough, he should keep that money, so that in the difficult days to come he might have the chance to buy his way out. But as soon as he turns in the money, he loses any leverage with which to negotiate and brings himself and his family to a very tragic end.

Dazed and confused Taiwanese

According to what is revealed about Taiwan history, it has been a common approach for the KMT to coerce someone into making a false accusation (for example, claiming that some innocent person is a communist bandit), then kill him after the statement is taken.

Certainly, we won't see someone getting killed over that nowadays. The KMT's approach is far more delicate in this informative era. However, the conspiracy tactic still works the same way and is enough to get Chen family lose everything. Seeing that same old drama revealed right in front of our eyes, it sends a chill up my spine.

But how do the DPP, pro-green supporters, pro-Taiwan scholars, and pro-Taiwan bloggers see this huge amount of money? This really bothers me.

It's been months since Chen's overseas accounts were exposed. But I don't see any concern regarding whether this is the money that DPP supporters donated to Chen. If it is to be returned, the recipient should be the DPP. It should never be "returned" to a KMT government.

For the DPP and for everyone fighting against pro-China authoritarianism, limited resources are always a problem. The source of financial support is even more crucial when what they are fighting is an organ that owns all the state power of a country and that dominates the public opinion with biased pro-state media at the same time.

It's therefore a puzzle for me that I see only the KMT government is launching almost the power of entire country to take that money into their pocket, but none of pro-green supporters has made any effort to get it back.

Is it because that pro-green has never thought about this? Or to them the money is dirty so they feel despicable to get their hands on it?

I don't get it.

Former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian indicted

Money laundering, corruption, and forgery?

The Saturday Taipei Times has the details in English, fellow blogger Echo posts about it in Chinese, and if you've got the language ability and an iron stomach, here's the indictment itself (956 KB PDF file) -- all 208 pages of it.

The Friday night edition of Talking Show (大話新聞) also had a lengthy discussion of the topic. Readers of this blog who view the show should be aware that the hard copies possessed by both host Cheng Hung-yi (鄭弘儀) and guest Chen Ming-yi (陳明義) (Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] spokes-whiner) differ from the PDF I downloaded in more ways than one.

Remember, an indictment is not a verdict, and the suspect was detained at the Taipei Detention Center for an entire month before these official charges were even made.

---

Trumped-up charges: Taiwan, 台灣, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, state affairs fund, 國務機要費, indictment, 起訴書

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian taken into custody

Another dark day in Taiwan's history

In yet another incredibly provocative move by the still-new Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) government, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was handcuffed by police and taken into custody this afternoon. A trial by public opinion has been conducted by leaking information and using the media to create an impression of guilt based on insinuation before actual evidence has been shown to the public.

Breaking News
Talking Show (大話新聞) just reported that Chen Shui-bian was beaten* (被打) by court bailiffs (法警) and that spokesman for the Wild Strawberries (野草莓) student protesters, National Taiwan University associate professor of sociology Lee Ming-tsung, (李明璁) was beaten by 4 police.

* UPDATE: This probably needs a clarification, but I'm not sure what kind yet. Reporters from ETTV and TVBS -- both very blue stations -- said that X-rays and other information indicated that Chen was indeed injured. Wednesday's Taipei Times mentions the claim that Chen "had been struck by a bailiff." [/update]

When they're at your front door, it'll be too late. Are you just gonna sit there, or are you going to go wake everybody up?

---

Blunt trauma wounds: Taiwan, 台灣, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, state affairs fund, 國務機要費, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, martial law, 戒嚴, police state, 警察國家, violence, 暴力

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

WTF did Chen Shui-bian do?

The truth is out there

Fellow blogger Michael Turton has already blogged about the latest scandal surrounding former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), and today's Taipei Times has some details:

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) apologized yesterday for failing to fully declare his past campaign funds and wiring a large sum overseas, but denied embezzling money from the government.

Chen said that all the money he had ever accepted was for election purposes, adding that his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), was responsible for managing his funds, including any amount left from previous campaigns.

Chen read from a written statement and did not take any questions during a press conference yesterday afternoon, leaving his attorney Richard Lee (李勝琛) to deal with the media after he left.

Chen said his conscience drove him to come out and apologize because he could no longer lie to himself or the public.

"I have done something that is not allowed by the law," he said. "I owe the public an apology for falsely declaring my campaign funding for the past four Taipei mayoral and presidential elections."

What raised the most doubt for me was that people like Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) are the ones presenting this information to the public, but today, it sounds like Chen is contradicting what he said yesterday. This makes that part about Chen's "conscience dr[iving] him to come out and apologize" sound like bullshit.

Additionally, I've heard that Chen's son and daughter-in-law are currently out of the country.

WTF?!

This will most likely present a serious challenge for the DPP in the years to come.

A-gu (阿牛) is following the Chinese-language news on this one, and he brings readers the latest info about Chen and Wu's resignation from the DPP.

Whatever happens in this case, beware of the presentation, and focus on the facts.

---

Interjections: Taiwan, 台灣, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, A-bian, 阿扁, Wu Shu-jen, Wu Shu-chen, 吳淑珍

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

How TVBS treats different presidents

Two standards to fool them all?

The standard by which TVBS (AKA BS-TV) judges Taiwan's new president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is poles apart from that by which they have handed down judgment on former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

A post on the SocialForce.tw forum brings us the links, quotes, and commentary. I've merely provided the translations:

(->) 政院擬降稅　汽油可能只漲4.5元 2008年5月27日 [TVBS article, via Yahoo News]

Executive Yuan to incrementally raise gas prices, price might only go up NT$4.5 -- May 27, 2008

來看一下舊新聞:

Let's look at some older news:

(->) 超貴！油價漲2元　最快今公佈 2006年4月18日 [TVBS article]

Super expensive! Gas prices to go up NT$2, today at the earliest -- April 18, 2006

..................
[Excerpt:] 一大早加油站就湧進大批人潮，因為油價這回不但要漲，
可能還一次漲2元，創下歷史新高。

The large early-morning crowd at gas stations was not only because of the price increases, but possibly also because this is a record high.
..................
[Excerpt:] 假設以每公升調漲2元來計算，民眾平均每次加油40到50公升，
油費就會多出將近100元，累積開銷相當可觀。

Assuming a NT$2 price increase times 40 to 50 liters per tank will add close to NT$100 to the average person's fill-up, adding up to a considerable amount over time.
..................

(->) 油價狂漲！　馬痛批：扁政府做太差 2007年10月30日 [TVBS article]

Insane gasoline price hike! Ma complains: Chen government is doing a terrible job -- October 30, 2007

[Commentary:] 漲了4.5元叫"只漲",漲了2元叫"超貴,歷史新高",
2>4.5...?
記者的邏輯,令人費解.....
奇怪,今天記者們怎麼不幫民眾算加一次油要多花多少錢?
3.9*50=195 快200元耶
民眾活不下去了啦~~~~~

An increase of NT$4.5 is called "only," whereas an increase of NT$2 is "super expensive, a historic high."
Is 2 greater than 4.5?
The reporter's logic is puzzling.
Isn't it strange that today's reporters can't help people calculate what the additional costs of filling up will be?
NT$3.9 times 50 [liters per tank] equals 195 -- almost NT$200!
Regular people can't survive, la~!

[Sarcastic commentary:] 扁政府真是做太差了,沒能力讓大家看到這種排隊加油沒有盡頭的奇蹟,
馬先生好棒啊!

The Chen Shui-bian government did such a poor job, not being able to let everyone experience the wonder of neverending gas lines. Mr. Ma is great!

I suppose the sarcasm in the final paragraph is obvious to most people, but I want to point it out just in case there might be some stubborn Ma fans out there who still don't get it.

Photographic documentation
I do have one thing to add to this. Here's a composite photo showing the gas prices last night and then tonight:


C'mon feel the joys!
(and then demand some alternatives!)
Even saying "I told you so" won't make me feel better.

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Red balloons: Taiwan, 台灣, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, gas prices, 油價, TVBS

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Writer of letters threatening Chen Shui-bian and others is caught

Bluer than blue, badder than bad

Wednesday's Liberty Times (自由時報) had a headline story which their sister paper, the Taipei Times somehow missed [following translations by Tim Maddog]:

恐嚇總統、官員、立委、主播 前調查員落網

Former investigator who threatened the president, public officials, legislators, and commentators caught in dragnet

〔記者黃敦硯、邱燕玲、楊國文／台北報導〕陳水扁總統上週接獲威脅陳總統小心兩顆子彈、揚言強暴陳幸妤、綁架小安安的「恐嚇賀歲卡」，警方昨天在北縣中和市逮捕涉案的前調查員楊清海，並依筆跡鑑定與子彈批號發現，楊嫌從九十四年十一月起，即寄子彈恐嚇信給時任行政院長謝長廷，及署名「黑合會秘書長」寄恐嚇信給民代、官員與主播等，目前查出至少犯案卅起。

(Reporters Huang Tun-yan, Chiu Yan-ling, Yang Kuo-wen [spelling of all names guessed phonetically] / Taipei) Last week, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) received threats in a "New Year greeting card" telling him to beware of two bullets, that his daughter Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) would be raped, and that his grandson Chao Yi-an (趙翊安) would be kidnapped. Yesterday [Tuesday], police in Taipei County's Chungho City arrested former investigator Yang Ching-hai (楊清海), based upon his handwriting and the batch numbers on the bullets. Beginning in November of 2005, the suspect mailed bullets as a threat to then-premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), signing his letter at "Secretary-General of the Black Collective." He also sent threatening letters to other elected representatives, officials, commentators, and others, and so far, he is suspected of involvement in at least 30 cases.

30 cases! It's about time they caught this guy.

What comes around goes around
The words "Black Collective" (黑合會) mentioned above are a variation of the word "triad" (三合會), with the word for "three" replaced with the Mandarin word for "black," representing here the underworld of criminal gangs, the Mafia, etc. I found one article in the Taipei Times which refers to this "group" simply as the "Heiho Association." The connection there is that the writer of the threatening letters containing bullets said that the recipients would end up like Taipei County councilor Wu Shan-jeou (吳善九) of the People First Party (PFP), who was shot dead in his office on May 23, 2007. According to the aforementioned article, "Wu had also received a threatening letter containing a bullet."

According to information I've heard elsewhere, Yang is suspected of having mailed bullets to some people -- such as Talking Show (大話新聞) host Cheng Hung-yi (鄭弘儀) -- because they were "pro Taiwan independence," and of mailing bullets to people like former legislator Li Ao (李敖) because they were "too weak." Does this make him "neither blue nor green"? Perhaps he'd be better described as "bluer than blue."

A look at his past
A search of the Taipei Times for Yang's name brings up this single news item from 1999:

Playing secretly recorded tapes through loud speakers and making accusations in front of a curious crowd, a Buddhist nun who claimed to have been raped by a respected elderly monk yesterday turned what was supposed to be a solemn religious ceremony into a fiasco, with loudspeakers playing what can only be regarded as decidedly secular content.

The monk, known as Master Juhsu (如虛), had planned to preside at a ceremony at a Taipei monastery yesterday, but failed to show up to avoid "disturbances."

In the absence of the master, Miaowen (妙文) -- the nun making the accusations -- demanded that Juhsu take off his cassock and apologize to her for what she said was his alleged sexual offenses against her. Miaowen has filed charges of rape against Juhsu, who was her master 12 years ago at a Buddhist temple in Taichung, central Taiwan.

The 40-year-old nun claimed to have spoken to four other nuns who said they had been sexually assaulted by the same man.

Miaowen and dozens of her sympathizers, before hearing of his decision to stay away, had expected to confront Juhsu during the hand-over ceremony, and brought with them loud speakers and banners.

[...]

Miaowen's spokesman, Yang Ching-hai (楊清海), a former agent of the Investigation Bureau, said he had checked the authenticity of the tapes before he promised to help Miaowen, after hearing suggestions that they had been tampered with.

Yang admitted that Miaowen had planned what she wanted from the conversation, prior to the call with Juhsu, which she recorded without him knowing it.

"According to my own judgement on the basis of evidence provided by Miaowen, I think she is telling the truth," Yang said.

Very disturbing. I hope to learn much more about this Yang character in the very near future.

UPDATE: The suspect and his girlfriend have both been released on NT$100,000 bail. WTF?! Keep your eyes open for another "fled to China" story real soon.

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Pieces of the puzzle: Taiwan, 台灣, Yang Ching-hai, 楊清海, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, Frank Hsieh, 謝長廷, Talking Show, 大話新聞, Cheng Hung-yi, 鄭弘儀, Li Ao, 李敖

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

CNN airs interview with Taiwan's president

Letting the world hear this side for a change

As Michael Turton touched upon in an earlier post on Taiwan Matters, CNN anchor Anjali Rao interviewed President Chen Shui-bian on the weekend show TalkAsia last week, addressing topics ranging from the March 19, 2004 shooting to the "scandals" surrounding his family to the reasons for repeatedly "provoking" Beijing and "rattling the bars of China's cage" (Excellent metaphor, that one!) to the so-called troubled relations with the US (Rao: "... the relationship between Taiwan and Washington at the moment is not as friendly as it once was."). [Note: I don't know where the Taiwan News got their information about the interview, but that stuff about Taiwan identity wasn't in the version I watched. Follow the links below, and see for yourself.]

The good
Rao asked some questions that sounded like the usual stuff we hear in international news about Taiwan. Whether the host was playing "devil's advocate" or not, I can't say, but she gave Chen a whole lot of space to answer the questions without interruption, and he gave pretty good answers to most of them. Even when she asked follow-ups, Chen gave relatively long, detailed responses which included some excellent statements about the reality of Taiwan's independence despite the lack of widespread international recognition or a "timely, relevant, and viable" constitution approved by the people. Rao repeatedly referred to and addressed Chen as "President," something many media outlets avoid by bending to China's will and calling him "leader" instead. CNN even put "Taiwan President" onscreen below Chen's name. To that much, I say "Hooray!"

The bad
There are lots of mistakes which may seem trivial or picky to point out, but I'm going to point out these groaners anyway and let you make up your own mind about the interview.

First, they messed up Chen's name in the onscreen titles, displaying it as "Chen Shui Bian." That's a pretty small mistake, and was probably the fault of the graphics person, but it shouldn't have happened. Rao appeared to be aware of the recent "redshirt" demonstrations, yet she appeared in the same solid red blazer/black top combo she frequently wears. Was this done on purpose? Only Rao and/or her producers know for sure.

Lost in translation
The translations were not completely accurate. For example, where I heard Chen say that there are "at least 988 missiles" ("至少有988枚"), it was translated as "The correct number should be 988 missiles." When Chen said the number of missiles had increased "more than fivefold" (五倍之多) the translator changed it to "almost fivefold." Regarding the shooting, when Chen said, "I believe that if it weren't for the shooting, we would have won by an even larger margin," the translation changed it to "... our camp would have won [making it sound like they hadn't won in the first place], and won even more votes.

Again, most of that's fairly minor stuff, but in the English version of one of the questions (normally restated for the camera and edited in after such interviews are completed), Rao implied that First Lady Wu Shu-jen had already been proven innocent of embezzlement charges. The question the president answered, which I assume was asked in Mandarin, was about the charges related to the Sogo gift certificates. Rao was born in Hong Kong, and an over-the-shoulder shot of Chen talking about being a "happy volunteer" after he leaves office showed her reacting with amusement, as if she understood immediately, but I can't assume that she's fluent in Mandarin, or that the shot was in sync with Chen's words -- I can only state what I saw.

President Chen gave a few answers that disappointed me, but perhaps he was once again being more diplomatic than I could ever be. Describing the "status quo" (as if one existed) as "peaceful" (despite the "anti-secession" law [which "legislates" the arbitrary use of "non-peaceful means" against Taiwan] and exponential missile build-up) was a bit disconcerting. Also, his response to the question about the shooting really should have gotten to the point, which is that forensics expert Henry Lee -- recommended by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) -- used actual evidence to report what the KMT continues to deny -- that Chen was really shot, that the bullet came from outside of the vehicle in which he was riding, and that the police were successful at finding the person who made the gun used to fire the bullets -- and that that very person has now fled to China, possibly into the arms of other Chen-haters.

The Island X files
In case you missed the interview and still want to see it (I think you should!), you're in luck. I've captured the whole thing, including the bumper intro and the three segments of the show and have uploaded it all to YouTube. Click the thumbnails below to view the clips.

Intro		Part 1
Part 2		Part 3

Excuses, excuses
Sorry for the poor quality of the videos, but that was the best I could do from within the cage that Taichung's cable TV monopoly and lack of a satellite dish has me in.

Related videos
* CNN專訪 總統暢談憲改工程 (2007-01-24) [CNN interview: President discusses constitutional changes] (via Taiwan TV) (1'31" YouTube video)
* 扁：國務費案 民主進展陣痛 (2007-01-24) [A-bian: "State affairs fund" case" is a "labor pain" on the road to democracy] (via FTV) (1'18" YouTube video)

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Participants: Taiwan, 台灣, Republic of China, 中華民國, ROC, China, 中國, People's Republic of China, 中華人民共和國, PRC, 中共, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, Taiwan Independence, 台灣獨立, Taidu, 台獨, sovereignty, 主權, democracy, 民主, CNN, TalkAsia, Anjali Rao, YouTube

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

BBC has news about Taiwan totally backwards

With writing this bad, it's gotta be on purpose

In a spot-on impression of the "Newspeak" of George Orwell's 1984, yet another BBC article without a byline has distorted Taiwan with its "reporting." Somebody could start a whole blog just to expose the mess the BBC makes whenever they write about Taiwan. For now, you get to watch me rip another one of their articles to shreds.

Who hit whom first?
Right off the bat, the article sucker punches the observant reader with this headline:

China hits back at Taiwan leader

Rarely will they call Chen Shui-bian "president" in a headline, so I'm disappointed, though unsurprised. However, in order to "hit [someone] back," the other person has to "hit" first. For your information, this seems more like a first "hit" to me:


The article presses forward with this remarkably ignorant subhead:

A Chinese government spokesman has accused Taiwan's president of trying to ruin ties with the mainland.

How can you "ruin" something that's not good to begin with? And wouldn't it have been better to put "president" in the headline and "leader" in the subhead, or would that have made China's unelected leaders cry like they had Tabasco® in their eyes?

Skipping down to the third single-sentence paragraph below that subhead, we get this copy-and-paste piece of easy-to-repeat nonsense:

China sees Taiwan as part of its territory.

While that's essentially true that China "sees" things that way, the BBC's unnamed writer could have just as easily pasted in, "The people of Taiwan see China as a foreign country which constantly threatens their sovereignty." Rebecca MacKinnon once told me in all seriousness that this is simply the result of "journalistic laziness." If that were the case, I would seriously recommend that they try my equally-accurate version sometime. (I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.)

Fists of factuality?
In a brief respite from the diligent "laziness," we get some facts about what President Chen said in his New Year's Day speech:

"Only the people of Taiwan have the right to decide on the future of Taiwan," Mr Chen said in his speech on Monday.

"Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to 23 million people. It definitely does not belong to the People's Republic of China," he said.

That, dear readers, is what the BBC implies to be a "hit" in its misleading headline. However, it is a simple historical fact that the PRC has never controlled Taiwan -- not even for a single day.

Here's how China responded to those historical facts:

A day later, the Chinese government made clear that it was not happy with Mr Chen's remarks.

An unnamed spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office told the state-run news agency, Xinhua, that Mr Chen "spares no effort to make disturbances".

"Chen intends to unreasonably restrict cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation... and ruin the peaceful and stable development of cross-Strait ties," he said.

"We will... never allow secessionists to separate Taiwan from the motherland in any name or by any way."

Every time Chen Shui-bian wakes up in the morning and brushes his teeth in the free country that is known as Taiwan, the leaders of the foreign country known as China are "not happy." Xinhua (新華, which is quite fittingly a homophone for 新話, or Newspeak) "spares no effort" to distort the truth. President Chen once again opened trade with China even further, probably to the dismay of many, and China's "anti-secession" law (which "legislates" the arbitrary use of "non-peaceful means" against Taiwan) hardly dictates that "cross-Strait ties" be described as "peaceful and stable." Furthermore, you can't "sece[de]" or "separate" from something you're not part of. It's both a physical and a logical impossibility. Taiwan is its own "motherland."

Here are two more muddled paragraphs:

China remains deeply suspicious of the Taiwanese leader and his independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, accusing Mr Chen of planning constitutional changes that would destroy hopes of eventual reunification.

But despite his tough talk, Mr Chen has also made clear many times in the past that he has no plans to declare official independence except in the event of a Chinese invasion.

What "tough talk" are they babbling about? Did Chen threaten China when I wasn't looking? Despite what might superficially resemble balance in those two paragraphs, the article taken as a whole definitely leans way over towards China's bellicose perspective.

The final two paragraphs of the article provide more faux balance which observant readers would realize favors China by omission:

Tensions, though, are still high. Late last month China announced plans to upgrade its military, highlighting its dispute with Taiwan as one of several regional security threats.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese legislators have recently been discussing a controversial and much-delayed US arms deal package.

Balanced? Think again! The "arms" being offered to Taiwan are purely of a defensive nature, and if whoever wrote that doesn't know it, they have no business writing about Taiwan.

There's not much I left out, but if you so desire, follow the link up top and go read the rest of the nonsense. Just be sure to question everything written about Taiwan by the BBC.

RELATED LINKS:
* Transcripts of President Chen's New Year's Day speech can be read at the following links. [Hanzi] [English]
* A Taipei Times article about unelected Chinese "leader" Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) same-day speech, "Hu stresses sharing the wealth in New Year's speech" (while number of missiles keeps increasing, "anti-secession" law still in place)
* Previous reamings of the BBC on Taiwan Matters! (all within the past 3 months):
1) BBC gets Taiwan all wrong
2) BBC angers all who care about Taiwan
3) BBC still not getting Taiwan right
4) BBC continues Taiwan deception
5) BBC strikes again
6) BBC Taiwan Coverage: Pathetically Biased
7) BBC cooks up more nonsense about Chen recall bid
8) Who will observe the Taiwan observers?

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Seeming defiers of the laws of physics: Taiwan, 台灣, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, China, 中國, People's Republic of China, 中華人民共和國, PRC, 中共, Hu Jintao, 胡錦濤, missiles, 飛彈, media, 媒體, BBC, 英國廣播公司, Xinhua, 新華

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Blatant propaganda from Beijing

This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs.
- American poet Amiri Baraka, purportedly writing about something completely different

There are some who call me... Nostra-Timmus?
In a post early Saturday morning, I "foresaw" the inevitable:

And don't forget, when you read that President Chen "survived a third recall attempt" in Saturday's papers, it means little more than he "walked on barely warm coals while wearing fireproof boots."

Lo and behold, a comment by Kerim Friedman (Keywords) led me to a reeking, (admittedly day-old), full rubbish bin from Jonathan Watts in Guardian Unlimited which ran under a red banner absurdly reading "Special Report China" and which bore a lede that was about as jam-packed with propaganda as it could possibly be:

The Taiwanese president survived with just one MP's support and his weakness could make him dangerous, writes Jonathan Watts

That's pretty base. How low can Watts go?
As I pointed out in my reply to Kerim, this Watts character is based in Beijing, and the propaganda that comes through his article couldn't be any thicker if his true love were to be found in the pockets of the Chinese Communist Party. That's four points of five-star propaganda -- just in the intro!

But, guess what. The propaganda does grow even thicker as Watts strokes it for every last gooey drop.

Put away your handkerchiefs, and get out your vomit bags
Here I've extracted just the propaganda -- and for the sake of your health, this is only from the first half of the article:

Pyrrhic victories ... painful ... humiliating distinction ... support of only one member ...

Bruised, unpopular and outmanoeuvred ... increasingly wobbly - and possibly dangerous ...

[...]

... Mr Chen can take no comfort in the manner of his survival. A majority of parliamentarians voted against him. ... Only one came out solidly on the side of the president with a "no" vote.

... a new low point for Mr Chen ... calamitous year ... his wife charged with corruption, his approval rating slip below 20% and many of his most powerful overseas supporters in the US turn their backs on him.

It is a far cry from 2000 ... Hopes were high then that he would end the corrupt practices of the previous Kuomintang administration ...

There are actually six more paragraphs of this nonsense. (Go read the whole thing to see how little I actually removed from those early paragraphs, but be sure to rehydrate at some point along the way.)

There's simply too much in there to take it apart in detail, but if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'll know what's innuendo (indictment doesn't equal guilt, the charges are based on selective leaks by rather corrupt political opponents, the "questionable" receipts were supposedly used to account for funds spent on secret diplomatic missions, the Ministry of Audit said to use those receipts before they said not to, etc.), what's distortion (the low "approval rating" comes from polls done by pan-blue media outlets, the "majority" who voted to recall Chen was 100% partisan, 100 legislators either abstained from voting or purposely cast invalid ballots, there was a huge corruption conviction of a Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] legislator on Friday which has been several years in the making, etc.), and what are outright lies. (Could Watts name a single "powerful overseas supporter" who turned their back on Chen? "[D]angerous"? Get the fuck outta here!)

Just open up your eyes, and you'll see
Saturday's Taipei Times presents their editors' impression that Beijing is being "silent" on the Chen recall idiocy. They're obviously not looking in the right places. Despite the omission of "Beijing" in the dateline of Watts' piece, the "rhetoric with Chinese characteristics" is as plain as the nose on my face.

Watts' brighter side?
I have actually seen some writing by Watts that is somewhat critical of Beijing (which is probably difficult to do under the circumstances -- here's more of his writing), but it's abundantly clear that he shouldn't be writing about anything related to Taiwan, because the CCP leaders could hardly have done a better job smearing Chen Shui-bian.

Take Action!
Instead of keeping your feelings bottled up inside or going to your window and screaming "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" read Watts' article for yourself, draw your own conclusions, and only after doing so of your own volition, feel free to make use of the information below to verbally express your feelings. Also, try to be more polite than Watts was honest, as it won't be him with whom you're communicating.

Guardian Unlimited
userhelp@guardian.co.uk
119 Farringdon Road
London EC1R 3ER
United Kingdom
PHONE: 020-7278 2332

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Props: Taiwan, 台灣, China, 中國, People's Republic of China, 中華人民公和國, PRC, 中共, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, A-bian, 阿扁, pan-blues, 泛藍, 特支費, Her Jyh-huei, 何智輝, recall, 罷免, propaganda, 宣傳

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Third attempt to recall Taiwan president Chen fails

On my tombstone just write, 'The sorest loser that ever lived.'
- baseball coach Earl Weaver, ejected from more games than anyone in Major League history

Third time still unlucky
(or maybe it's got nothing to do with luck)
The third attempt in less than six months by Taiwan's opposition pan-blues to recall President Chen Shui-bian, purportedly due to allegations of corruption, has failed miserably. Only 118 legislators voted in favor of recalling Chen, once again falling way short of the 2/3 required for the motion to be put to a public referendum.

Ironically, one of those very people shouting the faux "anti-corruption" slogans in the Legislative Yuan Friday was sentenced the very same day to 19 years in prison for corruption, theft, and breach of trust in relation to amounts over NT$1 billion.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator and former Miaoli County Commissioner Her Jyh-huei (何智輝) was convicted on charges related to a NT$1.1 billion loan obtained by using land valued at NT$100 million as collateral. Not so long ago, Her had fled to China to avoid being investigated (he returned in order to form the unconstitutional, kangaroo-court-like "319 Truth Commission" [MORE: 1, 2]), and in an apparent attempt to influence the outcome of his case, registered to become a member of the Legislative Yuan's Judiciary Committee (司法委員會). As recently as 2004, the beleaguered Taipei mayor/KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou, currently under investigation for abuse of his "special allowance fund," supported Her's candidacy when running for legislative office, calling him "honest and simple" (淳樸). Birds of a feather and all that.

Third time, still not charmed
According to an article by the AP's Peter Enav in Guardian Unlimited, "lawmakers from Chen's Democratic Progressive Party did not participate in the poll [and] 12 members of the Taiwan Solidarity Union - a DPP ally - deliberately spoiled their ballots" this time. Note the clear partisan lines in addition to Her's conviction on much more serious charges, and you will see that the recall attempts have absolutely nothing to do with opposing corruption.

Give up!
Even though the first attempt came up with 119 votes in favor of the recall, and the second time around only got 116 votes, Chen's stubborn sore-loser opponents just don't know when to throw in the towel. The third attempt got only two more than the second attempt but one vote fewer than the first try, yet the pan-blues are already saying that they want to go for four-in-a-row. Remember, they need 28 more votes than they got this time in order for the motion to pass, and then it has to be put to a public referendum.

Enough, already! Even after 2 months of organized street protests, there is no general support for the anti-Chen crowd's anti-democratic efforts. The pan-blue legislators are also wasting millions, if not billions, of Taiwanese taxpayer dollars by dilly-dallying around in the Legislative Yuan with this nonsense instead of passing legislation to move Taiwan's democracy forward and keep it safe from China's threats.

And don't forget, when you read that President Chen "survived a third recall attempt" in Saturday's papers, it means little more than he "walked on barely warm coals while wearing fireproof boots."

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Things to remember: Taiwan, 台灣, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, A-bian, 阿扁, Kuomintang, 中國國民黨, KMT, 國民黨, pan-blues, 泛藍, recall, 罷免, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, special allowance fund, 特支費, Her Jyh-huei, 何智輝, Judiciary Committee, 司法委員會, propaganda, 宣傳, corruption, 貪污

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!