President Ma Ying-jeou sent a few ripples through the Taiwan-watching community this week with the claim that human rights should be included in discussions with Beijing (Taiwan Today):
ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said Jan. 23 that his administration is looking to expand Taipei-Beijing dialogue from economic and cultural affairs to human rights and the rule of law as part of efforts to strengthen freedom and democratic development in mainland China.Ma's claim that the ROC was the first republic in Asia is laughable; I can think of two or three earlier ones. He makes this claim quite a bit, no one ever calls him on it.
“As the first republic in Asia, the ROC is committed to pursuing freedom and democracy,” Ma said. “But years of martial law rule and cross-strait tensions have made us realize that this goal is unattainable without peace.”
Ma made the remarks while addressing the annual conference of Taipei-headquartered nongovernmental World League for Freedom and Democracy.
The event, held at the Grand Hotel in Taipei City, coincided with World Freedom Day, which is celebrated in the ROC and South Korea to mark the decision of 14,000 People’s Liberation Army soldiers to go to Taiwan instead of mainland China after being released as prisoners during the Korean War.
A friend pointed out the obvious..... what did Ma say when he was inaugurated a second time:
"We hope the mainland can face some of the issues that have happened in the past and can treat dissidents well. We are looking at this from the point of view of kindness, not based on Western human rights values, but traditional Chinese values."What was Ma talking about? Well, he's speaking at an event at a KMT landmark on a great day for the Chinese Nationalists. What can the reference to human rights possibly mean in that context, especially speaking to an organization formerly known as the Asian-Pacific Anti-Communist League, one of those far-right organizations that quietly proliferated in the bad old days?
Well, in what kind of talks would the KMT side be discussing human rights? Wouldn't need them for economic or cultural talks, the latter a topic just recently broached.
Oh yeah -- political talks. That's when they'd discuss human rights. But Ma has repeatedly promised no political talks.
Hopefully just the usual meaningless noise.
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Daily Links:
- Casino Developer says Matsu will get $2.5 billion in development money. Right.
- Ma Ying-jeou to run again for KMT Chairman. In a professional political party, the Chairman and the President would be separate positions. DPP is same way, repeating the KMT mistakes.
- ROC unveils new minesweepers
- 2/3 of firms expect to lose staff to jobs in other Asian countries. D'oh. Pay in Taiwan is crap, hours are unimaginable, no one can afford a house in Taipei, and prices are rising constantly. What did businesses think would happen in this crappy world they've created for Taiwanese workers?
- Taiwan conducts drill of Chinese attack on Hualien airbase.
- Japan expels "Taiwan" activists from Senkakus with water cannon.
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“As the first republic in Asia, the ROC is committed to pursuing freedom and democracy,” Ma said. “But years of martial law rule and cross-strait tensions have made us realize that this goal is unattainable without peace.”
ReplyDeleteSounds like the old ROC tenet of "Conquer your enemies, suppress them until they shut up, then maybe after that you can think about human rights and democracy." Great.