Here’s one of my favorite articles about Soong
So you say the magazine was shutdown?
Or was that a typo, and you meant to say “my facts are incorrect”?
Brian
Thanks for the excellent article.Maowang.
Brian
So you say the magazine was shutdown?
Or was that a typo, and you meant to say “my facts are incorrect”?
Brian[/quote]
AC. For your information, the magazine in question, Next magazine, is still published.
BTW, it the most popular magazine here - and known for being a bit over the top at times.
I know, I’m still missing an issue in my collection though.
Wrong. You are not.
The issue - minus the piece publishing classified documents - was on sale for the whole week.
Would surprise me if you were enywhere near Taiwan when this happened.
Also you stated that the magazine was shut down and that was what you were ridiculed for. As a visit to the nearest 7-11 will attest, you were lying - as usual.
[quote=“Mr He”]The issue - minus the piece publishing classified documents - was on sale for the whole week.
Would surprise me if you were enywhere near Taiwan when this happened.
Also you stated that the magazine was shut down and that was what you were ridiculed for. As a visit to the nearest 7-11 will attest, you were lying - as usual.[/quote]
Just out of interest - what was the nature of the documents that were removed?
I assume we’re not talking about the Chu MeiFang(?) sex vcd issue are we? I’d hardly call that ‘classified’ 
I recall that is was about a slush fund used to pay off diplomatic allies. (Or the leaders of those allies?)
The existence of that fund was said to be a bit of an embarrasment for the foreign ministry. It was therefore deemed classified.
“Next” was preparing for a field day exposing how allies were bought (only the Taiwanese could be surprised over this) - but then… The offending issue was confiscated.
Not to mention it was political payback since Next magazine has PFP affiliation. Hence, CSB abused his authority. Not to mention the abuse of court system with frivolous lawsuits against China Times.
Next supporting PFP???
That’s news to me.
I always thought they supported their own sales figures… and little else.
I didn’t know about the slush fund, but I thought it was common knowledge that Taiwan bought or attempted to buy diplomatic ties. The quote below is from nationmaster.com:
I wonder why it would matter to the DPP if it were exposed that some proportion of the “purchases,” or “rentals,” as the case might be, took place through a slush fund? Or was it that the expenditures were supposed to have ended and didn’t?
Next supporting PFP???
That’s news to me.
I always thought they supported their own sales figures… and little else.[/quote]
[quote]http://www.taiwandc.org/twcom/101-no3.htm
The documents apparently also found their way to James Soong’s People’s First Party (PFP), which _ instead of turning them in to the authorities _ made them available to the two publications, in an apparent attempt to embarrass former president Lee Teng-hui. Both publications are rabidly pro-China. The author of the Next article is well-known as a mouthpiece for Beijing, and is also the younger brother of the PFP’s deputy propaganda chief. [/quote]
AC…
Half truths as usual. It is not a crime here to be pro-PFP. The crime committed here is somewhat different. Let’s see what actually happened:
I see, wonder if PFP broke any laws. The magazined did.
OK, let’s see what the guys in Taiwan DC mean about this affair:
[quote]In the present case, the raid and confiscation are regrettable, and perhaps were not necessary. However, the issue of national security is very relevant. There are apparently people
Mr He,
As far as I know there was no due process prior to the confiscation. There was no public debate to funds. It was just deemed illegal to talk about them.
Quite a transparent gov’t in ROC under pan-Green administration don’t you think?
The issue of illicit payments to diplomatic allies was in today’s Taipei Times. The article focused on Costa Rica’s former President. I can’t get the page for the online version to come up right now.
Taichung Mayor and KMT heavyweight Jason Hu was a heavy advocate in dollar diplomacy during his tenure as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
( See: Rawsley, Gary D. 2000. Taiwan
It’s a big story in Costa Rica’s Tico Times:
[quote]The Prosecutor’s Office is investigating alleged payments totaling $400,000 made by the government of Taiwan into the account of Inversiones Denisse, La Naci
[quote=“ac_dropout”]Mr He,
As far as I know there was no due process prior to the confiscation. There was no public debate to funds. It was just deemed illegal to talk about them.
Quite a transparent gov’t in ROC under pan-Green administration don’t you think?[/quote]
Yes, I do agree that the government here is a great deal more transparent now than it was in the past. Under the stewardship of President Chen, strides have been made with regards to human rights, freedom of the press, and the dismantling of the KMT party machine. Also, I trust firmly that especially the latter will progress greatly, once the DPP controls the legislature.
Also, with your incomplete understanding of the slush fund affair, then I have to say that in cases where sensitive documents are printed, confiscating first and discuss later is a necessity. Next could have gone to the courts, but they were in breach of laws by merely printing classified documents. In a few democratic countries, that is a major offence too - we had a similar case in Denmark recently.
However, as Denmark is more mature in a political sense than Taiwan, there were not a many fools like you lining up to condemn the actions taken by our government.
Also, I thought we were discussing James Soong and his spotty past as GIO chief here - what is Next doing in this discussion? After all, Next is still publicized, no-one was hauled off to jail or being murdered, and the legality of what the Government did could have been tested by a court. If I recall correctly, Next magazine abstained, as they knew that they would lose, even with the most blue judge handling the case.
If it was a pan-Green individual that leaked the news to the press at the time to embarrass the pan-Blue. I think things would have been different.
The whole affair was an aftermath of Soong trying to get back at LTH.