David on Formosa

The death penalty has once again been in the spotlight in Taiwan over the past few days. The issue was brought to the fore after a man confessed* to a crime for which another man was executed in 1997. The wrongful conviction and execution of Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶) was uncovered by a Control Yuan investigation in May last year. At that time the Control Yuan censured the Ministry of Defense over the case and said there were seven major flaws in the trial.

Since new developments in the case that resulted in the wrongful execution resurfaced there have been apologies issued by the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and President Ma Ying-jeou. About 30 officials involved in the arrest, trial and execution of Chiang are now facing administrative and criminal investigation. Those being questioned include two former defense ministers. However, a statute of limitations may prevent those involved from being punished. Read more »

It’s been another busy week on the Taiwan blogs. Michael Turton will be back with the links next week.

• Patrick Cowsill gives a history lesson on why the Dutch came to Taiwan.
• Taiwan in Cycles has all the information you ever need about carrying bikes on trains.
• Lao Ren Cha likes the Breeze Food Court at Taipei Station and has some suggestions for improving Taipei Station.
• Taiwanderful interview with Brian Webb of PhotoJazz.
• Josh snaps some photos at the City God Temple in Hsinchu.
• Hanjie visits Taroko and Mukumugi gorges.
• Global Voices on petrochemical product placement.
• Oz Soapbox on soap and sex. (This must be the closest thing Taiwan has to an expat sex blog!)
• Wandering Taiwan visits the Miniature Museum in Taipei.
• The China Beat on the abuse of the word ‘Han’.

News: Legislators consider making use of seatbelts in the back seat mandatory. Lin Feng-jeng labels the draft judges’ law a ‘dinosaur’. Activists question government’s failure to act against dog meat seller. Taiwan is experiencing a larger range of temperatures.

Continuing controversy over the Sean Lien (連勝文) shooting incident: while prosecutors call for death penalty even Sean Lien is not happy with investigation. Chen Hung Yuan’s family also question the prosecutors’ findings and the DPP still wants an election recall.

President Ma unhappy with missile test failures. Ministry of National Defense explains the reasons for the failures. Wired.com asks if the missile failure will score pity points with the US. Taiwanese American youth speak out for Taiwan’s right to self determination during Hu’s Washington visit. Analysts offer differing opinions on US-China joint statement. Richard Zalski suggests a new Taiwan policy for the US. Joseph Wu says rapprochement within Taiwan more important than Taiwan-China detente. J. Michael Cole says the ECFA is political.

Video: Gordon Ramsay goes on the trail of shark fin in Taiwan.

Announcement: The Formosa Foundation is seeking applicants for its 2011 Ambassador Program.

I had a letter published in the Taipei Times today. The letter suggests holding a referendum on combining the presidential and legislative elections. I believe this is one of several referendums that could be held in conjunction with the forthcoming presidential and legislative elections. The most important one would be a referendum to amend the birdcage provisions of the Referendum Law.

While the idea of combining the presidential and legislative elections (“KMT mulls idea of combined legislative, presidential election,” Jan. 18, page 3) is good in theory, the means of achieving it should respect democratic principles.

With the legislative election now less than a year away, it is not the time to start changing the rules. Furthermore, any changes in the dates of elections that involve extending term limits would seriously harm voters’ democratic rights. Read more »

Michael Turton is taking a break from blogging for a few weeks so I am going to post a weekly collection of links in the interim. Before he went on holidays Michael wrote a wonderful article about cycling in Taiwan on the Huffington Post. Let’s check out the latest on the Taiwan blogs.

• Letters from Taiwan on the DPP’s presidential possibilities.
• Hiking on Snow Mountain by Neil Wade and Stu Dawson.
• Excellent and thoughtful responses to Amy Chua’s “Chinese mothers” article from shu flies and Taiwan-Born American. And an animated response from Next Media.
• Claudia Jean has more on the story of Frank Hsieh.
• Darren Melrose snaps an alternate take with his Holga.
• Taiwan Sustainable Cities has a round up of environmental news.
• Barking Deer on hiking in Taroko Gorge.
• Dan Bloom reports on a small computer glitch caused by the Y1C problem.

News: Adil Hussain talks about working with Ang Lee on the set of Life of Pi in Taiwan. Taiwanese musicians heading to France. The opening of the fourth nuclear power plant delayed yet again. NCKU opens a new green building. Taipei Times editorial on the lax enforcement of traffic laws. The official number of indigenous people in Taiwan is over 510,000. Taiwan experiences very cold temperatures over the weekend. Taiwan Today interviews former Vice President Annette Lu.

Hillary Clinton urges China to reduce tensions as Hu Jintao prepares to visit Washington. Senate Taiwan Caucus resurfaces in time for Hu visit. However, today’s headline is US downplays Taiwan before Hu visit.

Video: Check out Tobie Openshaw’s talk about betel nut girls at TEDxMonga.

Freedom House released its Freedom in the World 2011 report yesterday. The report’s key finding was that freedom declined globally for the fifth consecutive year. Freedom House noted that authoritarian regimes like those in China, Egypt, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela continued to step up repressive measures with little significant resistance from the democratic world.

Taiwan’s ranking was unchanged from last year. Taiwan scored one for political rights and two for civil liberties to retain its status as “free”. Taiwan’s scores were the same as South Korea and Japan. The Taipei Times has some comments about Taiwan from a researcher at Freedom House.

“Taiwan remained one of Asia’s strongest democracies,” Sarah Cook, Asia research analyst and assistant editor at Freedom House, told the Taipei Times by e-mail yesterday.

“Municipal elections held [on Nov. 27] were widely viewed as free and fair, despite a shooting at a rally the evening before the polls,” Cook said. Read more »

China has the 50 Cent Party (五毛黨) to regulate and control content on the internet. Now it seems Taiwan has its own version labelled the $5,000 Party (五千黨). The latter term was coined by convenor of the Taiwan Green Party Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) on his blog in response to an incident where a group of 20 bloggers where paid NT$5,000 to participate in a tour of a petrochemical plant and write about it on their blog. The Taipei Times reports in more detail:

Pan told the Taipei Times by telephone that the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) had invited 20 bloggers on a trip to visit a petrochemical plant in Kaohsiung and an electronic appliance plant nearby.

“The trip was totally free for participants. They received free meals and a NT$5,000 cash award,” Pan said. Read more »