林保華

The importance of press freedom

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times  2024.9.21

I was a member of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) when I was in Hong Kong. Although I was not a journalist, my income from doing media work exceeded that from my job at school. That was why I was able to join.

I was oppressed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) before Hong Kong’s handover in 1997. I was even denied entry by China, which was recorded in the HKJA’s yearbook. The union voicing support for me was the reason why I have been keeping an eye on what has been happening to them despite having left the territory.

China’s hypocritical land claims

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times  2024.9.15

During a televised interview with ERA TV earlier this month, President William Lai (賴清德) said that China wants to annex Taiwan not for the sake of territorial integrity, but for hegemony. Otherwise, China should take back the territory it ceded to Russia in the Treaty of Aigun, especially now that Russia is in its “weakest state.”

Despite Lai’s statement being reported on and republished by international media, China did not dare to respond directly. It was instead a spokesperson from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs who provided a response, saying that the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship and the Supplementary Agreement on the Eastern Section of the China-Russia Boundary Line between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation were the final solutions to the border disputes between the two countries.

Deciphering a dictator’s poker face and smile

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times  2024.9.10

Dictators always wear a poker face to look daunting. If they put on a smile, they must be after something. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) recently showed a smile — despite being a fake one, it carried profound meaning.

There is a communication channel between China and the US to avoid conflicts: irregular meetings between Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

How to be a ‘die-hard’ separatist

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times  2024.8.17

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) on Wednesday last week said it would “use legal means to punish die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.” The TAO’s latest list of expanded “Taiwanese independence separatist” targets include former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), former legislative speaker You Si-kun (游錫?), National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), NSC Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and Government Watch Alliance spokesperson Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華). Nearly all of those listed are members of the DPP.

Are there truly only 10 “die-hard Taiwanese separatists?” That number is far too low. Are they truly the most prominent “separatists”? How was this list cooked up exactly? Were the listees chosen based on their age, experience, speeches or actions? However much we look into the matter, the connections seem absent.

The CCP, reform and the Third Plenum

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2024.7.30

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has formally convened the third plenary session of its 20th Standing Committee. Since the third plenary session of 1987, when the party introduced economic reforms and policies to open up the country, the theme of each third plenum has been the proposal of a new reform blueprint.

However, since the reforms of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) in the late 1980s, particularly after the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1987, China’s so-called reforms have been limited to the economy.

The consequences of war for China

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2024.6.16

From May 31 to June 2, 37 ministers of defense attended the 21st International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, including Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍).

Anyone who tried to separate Taiwan from China would be “crushed to pieces,” he said during the premier defense summit.

Taiwan’s successful tech industry

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2024.6.10

Computex Taipei 2024, organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), started on Tuesday last week.

The event had 4,500 booths and attracted 1,500 companies, more than 13,000 international professionals and nine technology giants — including Intel Corp, Qualcomm Inc, Ammann Group Holding and other major companies. Among the companies, there is competition and more cooperation. The event also attracted more than 1,000 news reporters from around the world.

DPP should work with some TPP lawmakers

    By Paul lin 林保華
2024.5.19

President-elect William Lai (賴清德) and vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) take up their official positions tomorrow. Many of the new Cabinet members are not members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Among these are minister of economic affairs-designate J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) and minister of culture-designate Lee Yuan (李遠).

China remains a serious challenge

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2024.4.26

With tensions between China and the Philippines heating up, face-offs have not only occurred in the South China Sea, but the Philippines also skipped the Western Pacific Naval Symposium — which received delegations from 29 countries, including the US — hosted by China.

Lately, many Chinese exchange students have flocked to Cagayan province in the northern Philippine island of Luzon, leading to a surging enrollment in private universities in Tuguegarao City.

US is still affirming Taiwan’s sovereignty

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2024.4.10

Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) went to China this month to pay obeisance, adding to the perception of him “loving China and opposing the US.” Meanwhile, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chair Laura Rosenberger made a last-minute trip to Taiwan from March 31 to last Saturday, yet during her stay, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was nowhere to be found. Did he go to Washington to report that something had happened within the KMT?

Signed in 1952, the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which settled affairs in the Pacific after World War II, never designated who would possess sovereignty over Taiwan and Penghu after Japan relinquished ownership. This was handed over to the US from Japan after World War II. The US passed Taiwan to Chinese Nationalist hands in a trusteeship framework, though Taiwan’s ultimate fate rested in US hands. The Taiwan Relations Act is a US domestic law. The act has a higher status than an international treaty and there is a reason for that.

‘Bumbler’ Ma set to go to China

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2024.03.31

Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) announced he is to travel to China tomorrow, which is April Fool’s Day. The date must have been deliberately chosen by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is clearly trying to court Ma while also fashioning him into a sock puppet.

The Economist once called Ma a “bumbler” and China takes a similar view. He seems to have cheerily accepted the sobriquet.

TSMC’s expansion win for Taiwan

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 240305

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) held an opening ceremony for its first chip manufacturing fab in Kumamoto, Japan. It is owned by a joint venture, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc (JASM), of which TSMC is the controlling shareholder.

TSMC founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) attended the ceremony, saying that the JASM fab would “improve the resilience of the chip supply for Japan and for the world” and “start a renaissance of semiconductor manufacturing in Japan.”

Chinese President Xi’s self-deception

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times  2024.2.26

At a gathering held by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese State Council during this year’s Spring Festival, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) reviewed the achievements of the past year.

“Good scenery on this side only” (風景這邊獨好), he said about the global situation.

Legislature speakership predictions

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times  2024.1.29

Given that none of the three main political parties won a majority in the Legislative Yuan, the elections have left Taiwanese with a serious question: Who will be elected as the legislative speaker?

The pan-blue, pan-green and white camps continue to compete with one another, and nobody knows how this will play out, or who will eventually cooperate with whom.

Abysmal financial decline of Hong Kong
Taipei Times  2023.12.3
    By Paul Lin 林保華

On Tuesday, Taiwan’s TAIEX stock index peaked at 17,360 points and closed at 17,341 points, surpassing Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, which fell to 17,303 points and closed at 17,541 points. A few years ago, the gap between the Taiwanese and Hong Kong stock indices was more than 20,000 points, but this was before the 2019 anti-extradition protests.

Hong Kong is one of the world’s most important financial centers, but many Chinese Internet users joke that it is only a ruin today. When asked by a legislative councilor whether he would communicate with social media platforms in the mainland to request deleting or blocking such posts, Office of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in Beijing Director Rex Chang (鄭偉源) said that the office had been paying attention to the comments and would continue to trace the sources of the remarks, pledging to keep a close eye on it.

Taiwan’s opposition and Beijing
Taipei Times 2023.11.2
    By Paul Lin 林保華

While Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) aspires to stand for election as president of Taiwan, it remains to be seen whether he can collect enough signatures to register as a candidate. In addition, some people involved in Gou’s signature drive have become embroiled in lawsuits.

Meanwhile, negotiations over electoral collaboration between the “blue” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the “white” Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) are proceeding in fits and starts.

Ma Ying-jeou shows true colors
Taipei Times 2023.11.1
    By Paul Lin 林保華

In a meeting with Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) on Oct. 16, Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen said that during a visit to Taiwan in 2010, he was warned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the administration of then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) “not to criticize the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” ahead of the Venezuelan rights advocate’s speech at a conference in Taipei.

However, Halvorssen spoke at length about the CCP’s behavior, with Ma and other officials leaving five minutes after his speech started.

Look to India on Chinese infiltration
Taipei Times 2023.10.16
    By Paul Lin 林保華

On Oct. 3, police in New Delhi raided and searched the residences of several staff members of the NewsClick online news site and detained several of them for interrogation. According to an investigative report published in the New York Times in August under the headline “A global web of Chinese propaganda leads to a US tech mogul,” NewsClick’s main funder is a 69-year-old US citizen named Neville Roy Singham, who established the Chicago-based software and information technology consultancy Thoughtworks and currently lives in Shanghai.

NewsClick, founded in 2009, defines itself as an independent news medium focusing on “social justice” that speaks out for “oppressed communities.” However, the New York Times report says NewsClick’s reports are full of Chinese government talking points such as that “China’s history continues to inspire the working classes.” Many organizations, from the Massachusetts-based think tank Tricontinental and a South African political party to a Brazilian news organization, have traces of Singham’s funding with the aim of spreading China’s “grand external propaganda.” According to the report, Singham-funded media have used funding from the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Shanghai Municipal Committee to publish videos on YouTube and “spread China’s voice to the world.”

Cracks in China’s debt-ridden economy

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2023.8.21

On Aug. 3, CK Asset Holdings Ltd, the property flagship of Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), launched presales at 15 percent less than the market price for uncompleted condominiums in the Yau Tong area that were part of its project dubbed the Coast Line II. It caused a shock in the market and people wanted to know what was happening.

At that time, rumors spread that some Chinese real-estate companies might go bankrupt, but the Chinese government downplayed this as a sales tactic. It turned out that Country Garden Holdings Co, another giant Chinese real-estate developer, was in trouble. This shows how sharp Li’s business sense is.

Economy up despite trade woes with China

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2023.7.1

Taiwan has moved up to sixth place among 64 economies in the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development’s World Competitiveness Yearbook after improving steadily over the past five years. It surpassed Hong Kong on the list for the first time.

In 2018 and 2019, Hong Kong was second after Singapore and the US. However, after protests against a Beijing-backed extradition bill, Hong Kong gradually slipped in the rankings. The passage of the National Security Law reinforced this trend. In 2018 and 2019, Taiwan was ranked behind China, but since 2020, Taiwan has been ahead.