"Never mind. You've proved who killed Cock Robin and I don't expect a still-moist kaydet to know all the tricks. But listen and learn."The other day, May 31st, the Taipei Times reported on the woman who felt uncomfortable after having consensual intercourse with a West Point cadet here in Taiwan on an exchange program.....
The Chinese-language United Daily News, a pro-unification newspaper, printed front page coverage of allegations by an unidentified woman who said she had sex with a visiting student from the US Military Academy at West Point. In the article, the woman did not make any specific claims that the man raped her, but said she felt "uncomfortable" after the hotel room tryst.
The United Daily News reported that a student surnamed Chuang (
莊 ) from the Republic of China (ROC) Military Academy had brought the West Point cadet to a nightclub in Tainan City on Friday night.The West Point cadet, who will be not identified because he has not been charged with any crime, was in Taiwan on a three-week exchange program.
The trope here of They're Rogering Our Women! is a commonly encountered one for foreigners in Taiwan. Predictably, legislators blamed the government...
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Nan-sheng (
林南生 ), while waving a copy of the United Daily News in the legislature's National Defense Committee, said that Taiwan had lost face because the country did not react in the same way as Japan or South Korea did when there was an incident involving US military personnel.He blamed the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and, more specifically, Vice Minister of National Defense Lin Chen-yi (
林鎮夷 ) -- who was attending the committee meeting -- for the alleged incident."Shame on you, vice minister!" Lin Nan-sheng said.
Echoing Lin Nan-sheng, KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (
林郁芳 ) said that he did not understand how the MND had dealt with the matter, implying that Taiwan was allowing foreign soldiers to run rampant on its shores."So, is this how you treat West Point cadets? Maybe it is also the same way you treat any soldier from one of our allies?" Lin Yu-fang said. "This is absurd! This is a shame! This is a disgrace!"
Just your basic shallow one-day scandal, right?
Wrong.
It was obvious to me when I saw the story that whole thing was a set up. As the Taipei Times pointed out, the lad spoke no local languages and had only been in Taiwan a couple of weeks, but nevertheless he got a taxi, set himself up in a hotel room and arranged a tryst. Had it been some working girl who hadn't been paid for her efforts, there would have been no story, except something like Cadet Worked Over With Baseball Bats. Nope, this one barked set up! from the get-go. However, I puzzled over just what the set up was aimed at.
It's important to keep in mind that when legislators go nutso it is on purpose and with malice aforethought. Taiwan legislators are completely rational and the fights, indignant attacks, and craziness one sees is political theatre aimed at local voters. The screaming legislator, Lin Yu-fang, from the PFP, has long taken an interest in military affairs. His vapid overreaction was the first clue that something was not right. Satirist Johnny Neihu provided the second clue today about how 60 seconds of sex turned a cadet into a celebrity:
Woe betide the military foreign exchange student who sleeps with the female buddy of a Taiwanese reporter and doesn't call her back.
A source at the United Daily News (UDN) told NewsWatch that the UDN reporter who broke the story about Ms. D -- a woman in Tainan who showed an American cadet from West Point what US-Taiwan "direct links" are really all about -- just happens to be an old acquaintance of Ms. D.
Coincidence? I think not. United Daily News (UDN) is a fanatically pro-Blue paper. Why this story, now? The answer, as a knowledgeable friend pointed out to me, is simple: a few days previously, on May 27, a Taiwanese woman became the first Asian female to graduate from West Point.
Hung Wan-ting (洪琬婷), a second lieutenant with Taiwan's Chinese Military Academy, will become the first Taiwanese -- and Asian -- woman to graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point on Saturday after four years of training, said a Central News Agency (CNA) report yesterday.A series of celebrating events have taken place on Thursday and Friday in the lead up to yesterday's graduation.
Of the approximately 1,000 graduates, 40 of those included foreign students coming from 27 countries and Hung was one of them.
Good news for Taiwan, and for the Ministry of Defense. That good news reflects well on the ruling DPP. Can't have that, can we!? So a scandal was quickly hatched -- a white foreign West Pointer was picked -- and visceral appeals made. The result? Good news for the ruling party blunted, West Point smeared, and some bewildered future American officer got a black mark at the start of his career.
UPDATE: Maoman has some fantastic comments below, at the bottom.
UPDATE: June 5. A Liberty Times letter has more details.
且根據該五星級飯店的櫃台服務人員及接待人員證實，是Ｄ女辦理住房登記手續，且酒店除了住宿房間內，均裝有偵攝錄影器，據實情得知，兩人在電梯裡就已經天 雷勾動地火熱情演出，凌晨二點多Ｄ女先行離開酒店。此期間，Ｄ女的神情及意識都無異狀，所以Ｄ女要報案有的是機會，硬拗被莊同學設計酒醉昏迷遭到性侵害， 不免漏洞百出，更難以自圓其說。撇開軍人身分不談，成年男女間的「男歡女愛」是出自「妳情我願」的需求時，又何勞外人置喙呢。
Hotel staff say she wasn't intoxicated, and security video shows they were already going at it hot-n-heavy in the elevator. Also, online chat records show she was totally willing participant. .
[Taiwan] [Tainan] [West Point] [PFP] [media]
If I were a bit more paranoid I'd speculate that it was part of an overall attempt to throw a monkey wrench into US-Taiwan military ties. It's not exactly a new thing... back in 96 Lin Yang-gang and other members of the KMT old guard were screaming at the US for "interviening in internal Chinese affairs" when Clinton sent the USS Independence to the region in light of PRC missile tests. There was also that little thing a few months ago in front of AIT regarding the arms purchases.
ReplyDeleteSomething similar to look at might be pro-North Korean groups in South Korea, who have long tried to play up xenophobia to kill the US-ROK alliance. They've been successful to a certain extent... ever seen how Americans are portrayed in Korean movies like The Host or another one from a few years back where the US was all but blamed for starting the Korean War?
woman who felt uncomfortable after having consensual intercourse with a West Point cadet here in Taiwan on an exchange program.....
ReplyDeleteConsensual sex and felt uncomfrotable don't mix. Btw, she was drunk, last time I checked, you can't give consen at that point. Btw, although West Point haven't been involved in any sex scandal recently. The Air Force Academy was found guilty of covering up serious rape cases (for years) in its campus just about few years ago.
Of this blog entry also shows how much you care about women's right, Micheal. You should never use uncomfortable and consensual sex in one sentence.
I do think the current political spin is over done though. That I agree.
Wow, Arty, so women are poor, helpless creatures who can't control themselves after having a few drinks?
ReplyDeleteWith your comment, arty, you present yourslf as an illogical and chauvinistic kook. Where or with whom did you check so that you reached the conclusion a person can't consent to sex when drunk? Certainly not with the legal code, which makes no such assertions. Your logic on this point is not very different from saying that a drunk driver who gets in an accident is immune from responsibility. The only relevant difference is that the driver doesn't consent to have an accident, whereas the woman here did consent to have sex.
ReplyDeleteAnd how is the case of the rape cover-ups at the AAA in any way similar to the case in question here -- other than the fact both involve cadets? Your analogy here is one of the weakest I've read in a long while; I often enough hear people foolishly make such associative-logic connections in speech, but rarely does such medieval-mindedness make it's way into written words. The only similarity betwen the two cases is "cadet,"; to draw an analogy on the basis of this single feature is no different than if you were to proclaim a similarity between a plumber who accidentally makes a baby cry and another plumber who purposely hits a baby.
You missed the whole point of the blog post, arty: it was a set-up. Or did you just ignore the whole point? I suspect the truth is the latter; I suspect you are making what is called in logic the "argument from invincible ignorance" -- suspect you are ignoring the point on purpose.
Why would you do this? Your second paragraph suggests why: because you're projecting your own chauvinisism onto someone else. You seem to think women are not capable of being responsible for their own decisions -- a condescending and sexist view if there ever was one. This orientation has left you blind to reality: In fact, plenty of women often enough later regret having had consensual sex. (So do plenty of men.) You've never had a woman friend tell you she regretted sleeping with a guy? Perhaps if you dropped your chauvinistic blinkers you'd be able to forge some friendships with women in which they would be willing to tell you more of substance about their lives and about how they think and feel.
I don't know which I feel more strongly -- disturbed or amused -- when I encounter primitive non-logic and archaic look-down-on-women attitudes like yours, arty.
Wow, Arty, so women are poor, helpless creatures who can't control themselves after having a few drinks?
ReplyDeleteNo, do I said women only. It is the same for men.
You missed the whole point of the blog post, arty: it was a set-up. Or did you just ignore the whole point?
First, it is your guess that it is a set-up. Regardless it is a set-up or not, no one should put consenual sex and uncomfortalbe in one sentence. Do you know legally speaking you can rape your wife or vice versa, if another partner say no? The whole point of able to give consent under influence is still debatable just like most DUI cases. And Vin let's hope you, your wife, daughters, or sons will never be in situtation like that.
disturbed or amused -- when I encounter primitive non-logic and archaic look-down-on-women attitudes like yours, arty.
Well, don't be surprise, there are many of us, but I least I am honest. Just like I keep saying that "Women only mention equal rights in situation favors them."
Oh, Arty, she got herself into a situation she couldn't control. A lot of people feel "uncomfortable" after a one-night stand.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the story sort of rang odd when it was mentioned the hotel they slept in was the Evergreen in Tainan--probably the most $$$ hotel in Taiwan. What's a student doing staying at such a pricey hotel?
This wouldn't be the first time that the pan blues have concocted a sex scandal in a pathetic attempt to embarrass the ruling party.
ReplyDeleteFive years ago, PFP lawmaker Li Yongping (李永萍)accused a Taipei-based Paraguayan diplomat of knowingly giving four anonymous women a venereal disease.
According to Li, one of the diplomat's "victims" was so upset in her attempts to find justice that she attmempted suicide.
"How pathetic it is to be a Taiwanese," her suicide note stated. "Because as one, you can never have any injustice redressed."
What makes the complaint more suspect than usual is that this case was brought to the public's attention one and a half years after their relationship ended. Why? Because it coincided with a visit by the Paraguayan president to Taiwan, and was intended to embarrass him and Chen Shuibian. Don't forget, the only person who revealed her identity in this case was a PFP legislator, and we all know how much the PFP loves Chen Shuibian.
There are some good links here:
http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?p=35762#35762
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2002/08/23/165218
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2002/08/24/165416
It's a good thing the ladies have a big, strong he-man like Arty looking out for them. Now they can focus on what they do best, cooking and making babies.
ReplyDeleteprobably the most $$$ hotel in Taiwan. What's a student doing staying at such a pricey hotel?
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of rich kids in the West Point (do you know it is harder to get into than Harvard). I can just go to student parking lot of one of the UCalifornia, and you can see what kind of cars are parked there.