Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo Credit: Solomon203/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
THE LIBERTY TIMES faces a lawsuit from the KMT over reports on a planned meeting between KMT chair Cheng Li-wun and Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Cheng has made no secret of her desire to meet with Xi, stating in public comments that she hoped to meet with the Chinese leader. Reports by the Liberty Times framed a thinktank exchange between the KMT and CCP government officials as in preparation for an eventual Cheng-Xi meeting.
Nevertheless, reporting by the Liberty Times–as well as Mirror News–in recent memory has suggested some tension between the CCP and KMT. In particular, reports suggest that the CCP hopes for a stronger pro-unification stance from the KMT, with a stumbling block being that the ROC would no longer exist after unification. Likewise, such reports indicate that Beijing may have a priority on blocking US arms purchases, stymying the Lai administration’s efforts to establish “non-red supply chains”, and establishing a joint peace framework between the KMT–moves that the KMT fears may hurt it in local elections later this year.
It is not unusual to see politicians take out lawsuits in Taiwan over disfavorable news or comments. For example, President Lai Ching-te sued former legislator Lin Kuo-chen of the TPP over profanity against him, leading to an apology from Lin this month. The lawsuit was on the basis of public insult laws.
At the same time, it sets a worrying precedent to see political parties target newspapers with lawsuits. This is not without precedent–for example, the Want Want Group filed lawsuits against the Apple Daily and Financial Times after reports that Want Want Group-owned outlets such as the China Times were accepting funding from the Chinese government and directly allowing China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to have a say in its editorial direction.
It is unclear as to the KMT’s motives in filing the lawsuit. Certainly, the KMT would like to allege that the Liberty Times, as the major outlet of the pan-Green camp, is simply disseminating falsehoods about it.
Yet what is unclear is if this is driven by the KMT attempting to downplay the idea that Cheng will meet with Xi in the near future. Cheng has, in her relatively short tenure as KMT party chair, already caused public consternation on multiple occasions.
Examples include comments suggesting that Russian president Vladimir Putin is not a dictator, but a democratically elected leader, and that Putin was forced into a defensive war because of Ukraine’s aggressive actions in drawing too close to NATO. The suggestion, of course, is that Taiwan could face a similar fate in drawing too close to the US, with the KMT under Cheng also asserting that US arms purchases are dangerous for Taiwan, and are an example of the US foisting useless arms onto Taiwan in order to financially profit. Otherwise, Cheng has further stated that she hopes to see Taiwanese proud to see themselves as Chinese, and made public appearances at events commemorating executed spies during the authoritarian period.
It may be that the KMT is observing pushback from the public because of Cheng’s stances, hence this attempt to downplay the idea of meeting Xi through this lawsuit.
Still, it is also possible that the KMT does not wish to see reports suggesting that its relationship with the CCP is tense at present. The KMT has traditionally campaigned on the basis of the claim that it is the only political party in Taiwan capable of communicating with the CCP and that it alone can maintain stable cross-strait relations because of its ability to communicate with the other side of the Taiwan Strait.
Lawsuits against major news publications may not be the best approach for the KMT, however, in unwittingly drawing attention to what the KMT hopes to escape the public’s notice. This is to be seen.