Taiwan under Ma Ying-jeou is a mess

Gangsters and police hand-in-hand -- and so much more!

Sun Moon Biotech -- the scene of the
May 28, 2010 shooting that took place
in broad daylight in Taichung City, Taiwan
in the presence of four police officers
Photo by Tim Maddog
(click to enlarge)

On Friday, May 28, 2010, the shooting murder of gang leader Weng Chi-nan (翁奇楠) which took place in broad daylight in the presence of (at least) four police officers in Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led Taichung City pulled back the curtain on so much of what is wrong in Taiwan today.

The two senior officers on the scene were Taichung City Police Traffic Chief Lin Chi-you (林啟右) and Criminal Investigation Corps' Third Division head Lin Wen-wu (林文武). The two lower-ranking officers there were Shih Chang-hsing (石長興) and Sergeant Tai Chih-hung (戴志宏).

Surveillance video from the interior of the crime scene exists, but over a week later, not only has this video footage not been shown to the public to help identify and capture the shooter -- it is said to have already been partially erased. UPDATE: That page has ironically disappeared, but I fortunately saved an image of the web page. [/update]

Could somebody be hiding something, y'think? Can you say "accessories to the crime"?

Were the police officers there simply "drinking tea," as has been reported, were they "playing mahjong," or is such speculation just a distraction from what was really going on? So far, we can only rely on the testimony of seemingly untrustworthy sources. Right away all four officers on the scene claimed that they "didn't know" Wang.

But just days later, the story changes slightly. Also at the scene was retired officer Chen Wen-hsiung (陳文雄, the one you may have seen on TV yelling about people making "groundless accusations"), who now admits that he knew Wang, though he claims he "didn't know him well," and he says he invited the other four to the location. Tsk, tsk!

How long will it be before the story changes again?

Taichung Police Commissioner Hu Mu-yuan (胡木源) has already resigned as a result of this scandal. However, the re-election campaign of Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) -- a Chinese KMT politician who has already held office since 2002 (thus having had plenty of time to do something about public order) -- is sure to suffer as a result of the constant attention being given to this matter.

Mayor Hu has repeatedly "declared war" on gangs, yet according to the National Police Agency (警政署), Taichung's crime rate has been the highest in the nation during the past six years.

This sure doesn't look anything like the "clean" Chinese KMT promised by Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in his 2008 presidential election campaign.

The undemocratic Referendum Review Rejection Committee
In news about Taiwan's disappearing democracy, to no one's surprise, the Referendum Review Committee rejected the second proposal for a referendum on the current government's plan to sign an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China. Even a poll by the deep-blue TVBS tells us that support for such a referendum increased from 48% to 55% [104 kb PDF file] since March 2009.

So why can't Taiwanese have a say in this matter? Referendum Review Rejection Committee chairman Chao Yung-mau (趙永茂) is claiming that "The TSU's proposal does not meet the qualification of 'approving a government policy' as stated in the Referendum Act."

This is just another of the Chinese KMT's word games which treat the Taiwanese as idiots.

The Ma government claims that the public supports ECFA, yet hundreds of thousands of signatures had been collected in support of this proposal. Could that number be the very reason the committee voted 12:4 to reject public opinion on something that could affect not only the economy but also Taiwan's sovereignty?

Radical (and mendacious) anti-Taiwan media
In a report on the latest rejected referendum, the frequently-mendacious news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) refers to the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) -- whose "spiritual leader" is former president (then-Chinese KMT) Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) -- as "a radical pro-independence party." More word games.

While I have previously complained about the TSU being infiltrated by Shih Ming-teh's (施明德) redshirts, there are only two groups which would consider the party itself to be "radical," and those groups would be the Chinese KMT and the CCP.

Why isn't anyone in the media referring to those two parties as "radical"?

China proves Ma to be a liar (How will he explain this away?)
After Ma's repeated claims that signing an ECFA with China would open the door for Taiwan to sign free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries, Chinese officials are ironically the ones who have been more forthcoming:

On the China trade issue, Taiwan protested on Wednesday after a mainland foreign ministry spokesman said Beijing "resolutely opposed" official contact between its diplomatic allies and Taiwan.

Does it matter what Chinese officials say about this? Will that stop other countries from signing FTAs with Taiwan? Read what Franck Varga says about that below.

US Congress listens to Ma's critics, not to Ma
(and Ma listens to no one but China)
A recent report by Congressional Research Services (CRS) titled "Democratic Reforms in Taiwan" has expressed "concern" over "the prolonged detention of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as a result of complaints by writers and scholars whose open letters (see link below) have been previously covered on this blog.

An article in the June 4, 2010 edition of the Taipei Times also has this to say about the report [highlights mine]:

"A number of professors, writers, activists and ex-officials primarily in the United States have signed open letters on what they called the 'erosion of justice' in Taiwan," the report says.

[...]

The US Congress has also helped, the report says, "by pressing the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] regime to end authoritarian abuses of power in favor of freedoms for all the people in Taiwan, including the majority Taiwanese."

The report says that a sustainable democracy helps Taiwan to guard against "undue" Chinese influence as cross-strait engagement has intensified under Ma.

Whenever people criticize things about the Ma government that anyone can see with their own eyes, the Ma government will have a response that treats you like you're imagining things (or perhaps that you're "not Chinese, so you couldn't possibly understand"), but their logic doesn't hold up to the facts. That doesn't seem to bother them in the least.

But remember this: When the Chinese KMT says "up," you should think "down" -- way down -- and check things out for yourself.

Related reading:
* David Reid of David on Formosa blogs: "Rejection of referendum is a denial of democratic rights"

* Ben Goren blogs on Letters from Taiwan: "Pants on Fire"

* Franck Varga blogs about gangsters, Chinese KMT hypocrisy, and more. As Franck points out, "They [the Ma government] want to let the Taiwanese believe that other countries will not be afraid of the Chinese reaction…"

* Michael Turton blogs on The View from Taiwan about Beijing slapping Ma in the face, noting Bonnie Glaser's Nineteen Eighty-Four-like "logic."

* Look back at what Jason Hu told the Taipei Times back in 2001 when he was running for mayor.

* Taiwan Echo writes about the return to days of dictatorship -- and beyond: Ma to Send More Military Instructors to Campus -- Elementary Schools Included

* Part 13 of my series of posts on "the erosion of justice in Taiwan" contains links to all the open letters, the responses, and my earlier comments.

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Facially-tattooed tears: Taiwan, 台灣, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, Taichung City, 台中市, Jason Hu, 胡志強, gangs, 黑道, police, 警察, ECFA, 經濟合作架構協議, referendum, 公投

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

United Bamboo -- KMT's Underground Assassination Sector

On October 4th, Chen Chi-li (陳啟禮), aka Lord Duck (鴨霸子), the one-time spiritual leader of the United Bamboo (竹聯幫), the largest gang in Taiwan, passed away in St. Teresa's Hospital, Hong Kong. He is well known to Taiwanese for his role in the oversea assassination of a Taiwanese-American writer Henry Liu in California (1984). Liu wrote a manuscript about the extramarital affair of then President Chiang Ching-kuo and was considered a rebel of the country. The assassination was ordered by KMT in the name of patriotism. In a case like this, Chen should have been treated by KMT as a national hero. However, after the contract was successfully carried out, KMT betrayed him and sentenced him to life in prison. Chen escaped to Cambodia to avoid life imprisonment and hid there until his death.

The death of Chen Chi-li not only marks a transition point of United Bamboo Gang, but also, more importantly, refocuses Taiwanese attention to the dirty, covert gangster-linked nature of KMT. The recently exposed yet another murder contract between KMT and a Hong Kong movie star, Jimmy Wang (Wang Yu 王羽), for the intended killing of Hsu Hsin-Liang (許信良) certainly stirred up the heat even more.

But there's more shocking news. Let me cited several paragraphs describing the origin of United Bamboo Gang first.

Taiwan's Dirty Business
The United Bamboo was founded 40 years ago by a handful of teen-aged sons of senior officers in Chiang Kai-shek's KMT army who had encamped in Taiwan rather than be crushed by Mao Zedong's advancing Communists. Disenchanted by the humiliation of their fathers, the young rebels joined forces to fight other gangs along Bamboo Forest Road on the outskirts of Taipei.

Lord Duck Is Dead
Chen (Chi-li) was born in 1943 in China and moved with his family to Taiwan in 1949. At age 17, he formed the United Bamboo gang with friends ... the United Bamboo gang was formed by a bunch of teenage students who were born on the mainland, oppressed by local Taiwanese people and got together to defend themselves.

Both articles describe that the reason the United Bamboo Gang was formed was nothing but gangster-style romanticism. If this is true, then we can fairly say that KMT later decided to "link to" this already existing gang and make use of their fire power for political use.

But "link to gangster", a knowledge that has long been recognized through available records, can't seem to describe the true nature of KMT enough.

When Chen Chi-li was indicted for his role in the oversea assassination, the attorney representing the victim's wife was the current DPP Presidential candidate Frank Hsieh. Certainly Hsieh was in the court with Chen Chi-li and had the chance to listen to what Chen Chi-li said.

In a news report (謝長廷：當時的政府要陳啟禮組竹聯幫) yesterday, Hsieh revealed:

"Chen Chi-li said in the court that the (KMT) government wanted him to organize the United Bamboo Gang, and the sole purpose is to kill those rebels. They (KMT) thought the anti-government people are weak, so it's possible to gather gangsters to organize United Bamboo Gang to handle these people. This is what Chen Chi-li said."
陳啟禮當年在法庭講過，「當時的政府要他組織竹聯幫，就是要對付所謂的叛徒，殺害這些人，他們當時認為黨外、民主運動人士沒有力量，很可能可以結合流氓，組織竹聯幫制裁、傷害這些人，這是陳啟禮自己講的。」

He went on saying:

"Chen Chi-li said it crystal clear, openly in the court, (it's the government) asking him to organize the United Bamboo Gang, and to extend their influence for the sole purpose of killing those people."
他說，「陳啟禮講的很清楚，公開在法庭講，叫他出來組織竹聯幫，擴大勢力，就是要殺害這些人」。

and

"Chen Chi-li described the organizing process in details in his confession and the audio recording. Because it's the (KMT) government who ordered the gang formation, it brought chills to the bone. So at that time nobody dare to say anything."
「他有自白、有錄音，把這經過講得很詳細，當時大家不敢講，看了大家會冒冷汗，是政府去組織黑社會。」

Hsieh also hinted that the reason the United Bamboo Gang could grow to be the largest gang in Taiwan is due to KMT's support.

What Hsieh revealed is a shocking news. After all, "has gangster link" is one thing, but "actively organize a gang for the purpose of murder" is a whole new story. Obviously, even after years of awakening, Taiwanese still haven't learned how dirty the true nature of KMT is yet. The United Bamboo Gang is not just a gang that KMT links to. In fact it is KMT's underground assassination sector.

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More readings:

● More on the White Wolf
● The China Connection - How Crime and Politics come together ... again
● Ex-movie Star Claimed KMT Wanted Him to Kill Hsu Hsin-Liang
● Prosecutors launch investigation into Jimmy Wang `murder contract' case