New Taiwan Weekly Case

The Taipei Times editorialized today about our Taiwan's judicial system, and pointing to the case of New Taiwan magazine editor Chen Tsung-yi:

Meanwhile, the SIP’s colleagues over at the Bureau of Investigation have been hard at work tracking down the profligate and the venal. The latest suspect is Chen Tsung-yi (陳宗逸), news desk head at the defunct New Taiwan Weekly, a pro-independence magazine.

What we cannot understand is how a “corruption investigation” would prompt the bureau’s staff to allegedly probe Chen Tsung-yi’s knowledge of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), a Washington NGO that serves as an advocate for Taiwan, about the North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association or whether Chen had studied overseas.

With these various incidents, the perception that public institutions are prone to incompetence and/or serving partisan interests can only harden. Those with the dreadful, direct experience of harassment by security forces in previous decades will also react to Chen Tsung-yi’s allegations with outrage and fear. This fear — rational or otherwise — can only be compounded by Chen Tsung-yi’s claim that all four of the agents who entered his home were Mainlanders.

The details of the last incident need to be verified, but for now, it appears that Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) is in danger of seeing yet another discrediting incident call both her leadership and the conduct of her investigative staff into question.

Yesterday Chen Tsung-yi sent around this email, in which he talks about how he was questioned, and also threatened with charges for attempting to videotape events.

今天早上 四個自稱是調查局台北市調處的幹員 在出示搜索票以及身分證明後 進入我桃園市的住處進行搜索 案由是貪污 我下意識拿起數位相機要拍這些人 結果發生拉扯、口角 他們威脅我要以妨礙公務罪送辦 坐計程車趕來我住處的母親嚇得要命 頻頻點頭示弱 我本來想要打電話報警 但是我確認搜索票是真的、幹員證件也是真的 四個外省籍調查員 一個帶頭、二個扮黑臉、一個粗壯平頭者扮黑臉 扮黑臉者跟我衝突 一個白臉拿Sony Camcorder蒐證 另一個白臉安撫 帶頭的說這樣會妨礙公務 並且要我將數位相機裡面 有關他們的照片全部刪掉 我在臨時的情況下 不知道這是否合法 遂將照片全部刪掉 搜索的過程中 辦黑臉的外省幹員 沒頭沒腦開了我的二台電腦 看看有沒有什麼可疑檔案 因為我很潔癖 電腦桌面沒有留太多資料 這個外省人打開了幾個檔案 特別看了一些我寫的文章、有關軍事的文章 但是沒有多問 期間 帶頭的接了二通電話 一通似乎是祕書長所打來 他跟秘書長報告 陳先生似乎很不爽 另一通電話 他跟不知道哪來的主管 提到了有關FAPA（台灣人公共事務會）的談話 並且暗示 也到我父親的公司進行搜索

我這才明瞭 撿調的清算前朝動作 已經指向海外台獨社團了 而因為我伯父長期擔任FAPA的會長與執行長 所以 我才會遭到搜索 事實上 我認為這是一種恐嚇 我盡量壓抑自己的情緒 不發一語 他們看到我的書架上面 全部都是林山田教授的法律書、軍事研究書、日本歷史與新聞學、國際政治相關書籍 所以開始跟我扯一些 我是不是法律背景啦之類的哈拉 我理都不理 因為每一句話未來都可能變成證供 我在初期 他在電話中提到FAPA時 我忍不住問了一句 FAPA是海外民間社團 講的是台獨理念 這跟貪污有什麼關係? 帶頭的打哈哈 說現在是民主時代 台獨不是問題 基於案情不公開 他沒有扯太多 但是他一直好奇問我 為什麼我知道FAPA 和北美台灣人教授協會 我說白癡看報都知道FAPA 有什麼奇怪的 他開始說 你知道的還蠻多的 是不是有留學外國 我開始沉默不與 不想理他 只剩下我母親一直說 我什麼都不知道.... 我的母親嚇得要命 他從我國中叛逆期的時候 就擔心有一天我會被憲兵抓去 今天 在台灣民主化、獨立化二十年 結果變成中國化的今天 我母親的噩夢竟然成真 我被搜索 跟其他許多人在這段時間所受的司法苦難比起來（不包括陳水扁） 這是很輕微的遭遇 但是 我認為 整個戲才開始上演 是戰鬥的時刻了

Is this a trend? Hard to say. The brilliant thing about Leninist political systems -- and here I refer to organization, not political slant -- is that the ideology that drives them, and the party structure, both interpenetrate deeply into every aspect human life. This is true of all Leninist organizations, from the Communist Party of Russia, to the KMT, to the Nazi party, which subscribe to Leninist organizational structures though having a different ideology from Lenin himself. Adherents/victims in such systems experience its ideology as supreme in all facets of life, and know how to behave in a given situation because they have internalized that ideology as their own identity -- a number of scholars have nailed this in observing the "quasireligious" nature of the KMT. So when four mainlander officials, presumably Blues of some sort, enter the house of a prominent Green to conduct a search, did the topics of connections to overseas organizations come up as the result of orders from above, or as the inevitable result of a certain mentality, a certain mode of thinking, inherent to the Blue identity? This just shows how hard it will be to root out this type of thinking.

The Taipei Times report on the case did say that Chen said the investigators called their office to discuss FAPA:

During the search, Chen said the agents talked on the telephone with what seemed to be two superiors and mentioned the US-based pro-Taiwan group Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA).

“I asked them what FAPA — an overseas civic organization that promotes Taiwan independence — had to do with a corruption case. The leader said he could not reveal details about the investigation and that promoting Taiwan independence was not an issue since the nation is a democracy,” Chen said in the e-mail.

He added that the lead agent continued to ask about FAPA and another US-based pro-independence organization, the North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association.

“Suddenly I realized that the purge by prosecutors and the Investigation Bureau is now looking at overseas pro-independence groups and I was searched because my uncle has long served as FAPA chairman and executive director — in other words, I think this [search] was a warning to me,” Chen wrote.

If we get more cases like this, then we can call it a problem. Except that the well-known commentator Paul Lin also had an experience...from the same Taipei Times article:

Meanwhile, political columnist Paul Lin (林保華) penned an article in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) on Wednesday in which he said police from his local precinct had come to his house for no reason.

Paul Lin said he suspected the visit had something to do with recent articles he has written on police abusing their power and disregarding human rights.

Do we have a problem yet? Maybe...or maybe it is just a certain mentality at work -- which means, in the end, that if we don't have a problem now, we will at some point. Keep in mind that the details of these cases have to be verified. Until then, I leave you with the Taipei Times' dismissal of the local judiciary:

It may not rank among the most substantial news stories of the year, but yesterday’s decision by the Kaohsiung District Court to refuse an adoption request by an American couple for a developmentally disabled Taiwanese girl was a stunning example of how Taiwanese justice can resemble a drunken crap shoot.

The would-be parents, whose excellent educational credentials proved to be their downfall, can appeal, but for the rest of us the real question is what caliber of people are being appointed to serve as arbiters of the law.

The court effectively said that the couple, both Harvard graduates and doctorate holders, were at risk of abandoning or otherwise mistreating the child because she was likely to fail to live up to their expectations.

Welcome to Taiwan, folks.

[Taiwan]