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Ex-ROC president Chen Shui-bian AP photo
Former president of the Republic of China in-exile, Chen Shui-bian has offered to testify to the United States Supreme Court in the pending Taiwan passport case, Roger C.S. Lin, et al vs. United States.
The offer of testimony from the man who was president of Taiwan's government from 2000 to 2008 would be valuable to the Supreme Court but he may not be heard. If the Supreme Court did allow Chen's testimony it would likely remand the case to a lower court for the evidentiary hearing reserving its own oral argument sessions for the lawyers.
However, even if the Supreme Court accepts the case at its September 29th conference, as is tentatively scheduled, and orders Chen's testimony there is the little problem of his current imprisonment in Taiwan. Held in solitary confinement since December, the former leader is facing corruption charges in a controversial trial that has drawn sharp criticism and triggered protests in the streets.
Chen has signed an affidavit for the U.S. Supreme Court from his jail cell and could shed considerable light on the legal status of Taiwan. In April, the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals described Taiwan's plight as "political purgatory" because of its long-standing unresolved status which the court called a "strategic ambiguity" left over from the Cold War.
In October 1945, under Harry Truman's watch, the U.S. Navy landed Republic of China troops on Taiwan, then called Formosa, to process surrendering Japanese soldiers. The Chinese civil war ended up in 1949 with the defeated Chiang Kai-shek fleeing to Taiwan where the occupation Chinese government has been entrenched ever since.
Chen's jailhouse statements provide a glimpse of what his testimony to the Supreme Court might include. A few sentences are all that are needed to show what a political hot potato Chen has become as he moves to the international stage.
"During the period of my Presidency, and according to the TRA {Taiwan Relations Act of 1979], it was my understanding that the United States government only considered me as the head of the "Taiwan governing authorities" and did not recognize Taiwan or the ROC [Republic of China] as sovereign states. According to the SFPC of 1952 [San Francisco Peace Treaty] the United States is the principal occupying power of Taiwan, and to my knowledge there has been no change in this status to date."
" Based on this rationale, during my term in office, I accepted the instructions of the Chairmen of the American Institute in Taiwan on many occasions, even when their instructions interfered with my Presidential decision-making."
During the Cold War and fighting in Korea and Vietnam, the United States used the vast secret police network of the Chiangs to supplement its own huge spy contingent as Taiwan became the hub for America's secret warfare in all of Asia. At one point, the U.S. station of the Central Intelligence Agency included 10,000 operatives based in Taiwan.
The United States turned a deaf ear and blind eye to decades of martial law and ignored the infamous '228 Massacre' and White Terror period when many Taiwanese were executed or given long prison sentences for advocating Taiwanese independence.
Thus far, President Barack Obama has been silent about the 'Taiwan question' even to the point of having Solicitor General Elana Kagan waive her right to submit a brief in response to Roger Lin's petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court.
Now that Chen Shui-bian's offer to tell top government secrets is on the table, the passport case suddenly takes on a new high profile that may have Kagan wishing she could reply. No decision by the Supreme Court on Chen's offer is expected until the beginning of the October court term.
For more info: www.examiner.com/x-1969-Boston-Progressive-Examiner~topic72211-Taiwan
Comments
Two paragraph from my letter to the Supreme Court:
As pointed out by Mr. President Obama, [Silence is the murder of Holocausts], I cannot help but stress that Formosa was betrayed the first time by the silence and inaction of USMG since 1947 up to now. Not long ago, the appeals court judges had clearly stated that Formosans are living in the political purgatory for over 6 decades due to their stateless condition.
Should the Supreme Court decide not to hear the case of Lin v. USA, it would mean that DOS and Supreme Court are working together to abandon US oversea territory and US obligations towards the people of Formosa per SFPT of 1952. It would also mean that USA could betray Formosa and Pescadores (Taiwan) for the second time.
Whatever, the legal status, we, meaning the USA, should be honest about it. His allegation that legally we are still the legal occupying power is very interesting.
Didn't mean for that comma to be after the word 'whatever'.
ah bian is not exiled.
God bless America have Supreme Court besides State Department!
That is why America is a true and great country in the whole world! Not China,not Russia! Not N.Korea, Not Iran! Not Burma!
Supreme Court will be and have to hear the voice for Taiwan!
From 2300 million's Taiwanese that they still live in "Political Purgatory" since 1952 !
The war still not end fro Taiwanese in the beautiful Formosa!
With the former President Chen Shui-Bian testify in the Washington D.C. will be a wake up call for U.S.M G
to finish " U.S.'s unfinished bussiness in Taiwan!"
Allow Taiwanese to creat their own Taiwan Civil Government!"
and U.S.M.G will give Taiwane's Sovereignty to Taiwanese!
It is time for U.S. to finish her unfinished bussiness in Taiwan!
God bless America!
God bless Formosa Republic!
How about writing letters to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts?
The Naruwan people who are the true owners of Taiwan are still dying as a result of Typhoon Morakot even as we speak.
It's very sad and very disgusting that the rich Han-Taiwanese-Americans are still so proud and pre-occupied with their personal letters as if it will save thousands of lives NOW in Taiwan.
Shame!
One day the We, Naruwan people , whose very neglected mountain villages suffered the most from Morakot, will rise-up and declare our very own Naruwan Republic !
ROC and Formosa Republic are all Han Republics unlike the Non-Han Naruwan Republic!
"There is a way according to SFPT to protect Taiwan air in simple and low costs. Allow American flags wave on the air of Taiwan. It means Taiwan is the oversea territory of USA according to SFPT of 1952. Does PRC dare to invade the USA territory against the International law?"
Cheng-Kuang Chen "
why don't you protect it with your own life? are you a cowa*rd?
" Based on this rationale, during my term in office, I accepted the instructions of the Chairmen of the American Institute in Taiwan on many occasions, even when their instructions interfered with my Presidential decision-making."
this could be possible treason for being a puppet of the usa.
plain citizens could sue abian for this now with this solid proof.
i hope not all taiwanes think like pres. bian. he admits to being
a slave of his master usa when he's president! what a traitor!
no wonder why few nations support taiwan's bid for independence because your leaders can't be trusted!
Please read and understand the article in its completeness. US Pres. Harry Truman landed ROC in exile on Taiwan. In TRA, there is no name of ROC at all. ROC has no legal right to impose Chinese law on Taiwanese. And CSB is a Taiwanese, like the rest of the 20-million residents on Taiwan. There has never been trial or conviction on CSB's alleged corruption which does not warrant 9-month imprisonment and persecution of his family all over media on Taiwan. The unprofessional conduct of ROC prosecutors clearly shows that this is a political case.
Overseas Taiwanese supporters of the Formosa case Roger Lin et al vs USA are risking our lives in lending our support to Taiwan. ROC has a world-wide spying network on Taiwanese even when they are forced to leave Taiwan for a living. Chinese are known for murdering dissidents. Just look around and find how many Taiwanese dare to say they are Taiwanese.
Taiwan independence is now controlled by Chinese to steal the sovereignty of Taiwan. ROC Chinese now call themselves Taiwanese. Some of them are learning Taiwanese language like hell.
The UN knows neither ROC or Taiwan is a sovereign state. Only the poor Taiwanese don't know about the true legal status of Taiwan due to Chinese-controlled media coverup.
"Taiwanese says:
Overseas Taiwanese supporters of the Formosa case Roger Lin et al vs USA are risking our lives in lending our support to Taiwan. ROC has a world-wide spying network on Taiwanese even when they are forced to leave Taiwan for a living. Chinese are known for murdering dissidents. Just look around and find how many Taiwanese dare to say they are Taiwanese. "
August 21, 2:36 AM
What a shame! Hundreds died in Taiwan and hundreds are still missing with whole villages buried 2-storey high with rocks and mud yet you claim you rich spoiled Taiwanese-Americans are risking your lives ?
Yet until now nobody here offered some prayers for all the victims.
Fake Taiwanese!
"Miriam says:
Taiwan independence is now controlled by Chinese to steal the sovereignty of Taiwan. ROC Chinese now call themselves Taiwanese. Some of them are learning Taiwanese language like hell."
please define taiwanese language.
to my knowledge hans here dunno how to speak amis, atayal etc... , the known real taiwanese languages.
in fact the hans here don't like to learn the languages of the
native taiwanese despite colonizing taiwan for centuries!
"Yammy says:
Please read and understand the article in its completeness. US Pres. Harry Truman landed ROC in exile on Taiwan. In TRA, there is no name of ROC at all. ROC has no legal right to impose Chinese law on Taiwanese. And CSB is a Taiwanese, like the rest of the 20-million residents on Taiwan. There has never been trial or conviction on CSB's alleged corruption which does not warrant 9-month imprisonment and persecution of his family all over media on Taiwan. The unprofessional conduct of ROC prosecutors clearly shows that this is a political case.
August 21, 2:16 AM"
stop lying. harry truman's ancestors were still in europe when the non-han amis, atayals... etc. made taiwan their home.
your propaganda of your pocket-size, customized history starting with harry will not fool people of the world today.
It's incredible that it's now August 21, 2009 and the so-called
"Native-Taiwanese Hans" are still talking about Harry Truman, their ROC-in-Exile flick and how their support for Roger Lin ( Lin is a Han family name) supposedly endangers their life!
Yet the deafening silence about offering prayers and condolences
to those who died and are still missing after Morakot wiped-out
several mountain villages is very loud and clear in this forum.
These Taiwanese-Americans hearts are clearly no longer anchored in Taiwan but in their egoistic make-believe 007-like cloak and dagger saga about being in 'life and death' situation because of their Roger Lin caper.
That for these super-rich Taiwanese-Americans are more important than even sending moral support or an expression of condolence to Taiwan.
Shame!
While their total disregard for Morakot's destruction is understandable, they being rich Taiwanese-Americans living comfortably in far-away USA their continuing lies to claim that the Taiwanese Language is the Han Hokkien dialect is not only callous but a form of ethnic genocide.
Furrthermore, their Taiwan History which to them started when Harry Truman was boss is akin to whitewashing Taiwanese Naruwan History which is clearly cultural genocide in it's most lethal form.
merrel says:
... "in fact the hans here don't like to learn the languages of the native taiwanese despite colonizing taiwan for centuries!
August 21, 6:28 AM "
they look down on us aborigines and call us 'o-huan' or 'huan-na' so is more important for them talk and talk about reger lin, us marine san francisco when moracot killed our brothers peinan, bunun pinpu they no care because they are 'han' and we are 'hua-na' so zero talk here of sorrow for victims double-zero.
"cheng-kuang chen says:
Two paragraph from my letter to the Supreme Court:
As pointed out by Mr. President Obama, [Silence is the murder of Holocausts], I cannot help but stress that Formosa was betrayed the first time by the silence and inaction of USMG since 1947 up to now..."
August 12, 7:44 PM
August 12, 2009, 7:44 PM --- Ciolin village was no more. Buried 5 storey-deep by muds and rocks unleashed by Morakot the villagers had no chance to escape.
Severed bodies were scattered all over the river bed, headless torso, severed head with 1/2 of forehead gone, detached arms... Surviving family members were agonizing , a boy who lost his pa and ma and big brother was comforted by his grandma, a man who lost 8 members of his family was left speechless and helpless.
Taiwanese needed your prayers on 8-12-09.
Yet someone who says he is Taiwanese gave us 2 paragraphs on that fateful night.
Sadly there were no prayers.Clearly he did not care. He is not Taiwanese.
The Dalai Lama was all over Ciaolin and other areas wiped-out by Morakot offering prayers and condolences to the vistims families and a still grieving nation.
Out of the blue a bunch of rowdy crowd created havoc at the AIT and surroundings demanding to be " nationals, although not voting citizens, of the US, with US passports."
In a time of extreme grief and sorrow Roger Lin and his formosites or american parasites had the guile and thick face to
try to grab the limelight that even the Dalai Lama strongly avoided.
These kind of Americans should be deported from the Naruwan Republic and send back to school.
Unlike the Dalai Lama Roger Lin and his formosites didn't even offered a single word of condolence and prayers to the victims of Morakot .
Maybe it's because most victims are genuine Native Taiwanese Aborigines of the Naruwan Nation that these Formosan-Hans ( Lin is a Han surname) have always looked down and discriminate so the formosites like Lin just don't care.
Or maybe the formosites no longer feel the pain cuz they already
consider themselves nationals, although not voting citizens, of the US, with US passports.
What kind of soul do these formosites have?
Family of the People who died in typhoon Morakot knew that KMT/ROC provided lip service. All those news on media about how ROC helped the vicimes are just propaganda. Many of them voted for Ma. How sad!
Those who killed the indigenous people on Taiwan were the brutal Chinese settlers at least one hundred years ago. Chinese killed each other the same way. After mixing up with the local people and people from other countries, the Chinese genes had much disappeared. Later on, Japanese gov had killed the aboriginals to conquer Taiwan. Many Taiwnese received Japanese civil education to adopt Japanese nationality till the ROC troops came. So you should see Taiwanese have little to do with the Hans.
The representives of the Taiwanese aboriginals are on KMT/ROC's payroll and are promoting faulty and illegal self-determination of Taiwan. Why do these people work for the Hans (ROC on Taiwan) which works with China (the other Hans) to take over Taiwan? How is this the promised land for anybody on Taiwan including the Nanuwa people?
"Dawn says:
Those who killed the indigenous people on Taiwan were the brutal Chinese settlers at least one hundred years ago. Chinese killed each other the same way. After mixing up with the local people and people from other countries, the Chinese genes had much disappeared. Later on, Japanese gov had killed the aboriginals to conquer Taiwan. Many Taiwnese received Japanese civil education to adopt Japanese nationality till the ROC troops came. So you should see Taiwanese have little to do with the Hans. "
The people you called Aboriginals are the real 'Native Taiwanese' while the rest are 99.8% Hans in 'look', language ,
customs, and culture.
Like their Hokkien forefathers they also call the Naruwans 'O-Huan'.
"Susan says:
The representives of the Taiwanese aboriginals are on KMT/ROC's payroll and are promoting faulty and illegal self-determination of Taiwan. Why do these people work for the Hans (ROC on Taiwan) which works with China (the other Hans) to take over Taiwan? How is this the promised land for anybody on Taiwan including the Nanuwa people? "
Your pronounciation of Naruwan as Nanuwa is typical Han intonation revealing your genes to us.
The Naruwan Republic core group are not affiliated with either your KMT Hans, DPP Hans and CCP Hans .
The Naruwan Nation doesn't work for anyone to take over Taiwan because in the first place the Native Taiwanese Naruwans historically own Taiwan and we just want to reclaim our Island from you Han people colonizer.
"News from Taipei says:
Family of the People who died in typhoon Morakot knew that KMT/ROC provided lip service. All those news on media about how ROC helped the vicimes are just propaganda. Many of them voted for Ma. How sad! "
Yeah even the Formosites (American Parasites) who claim to be Taiwanese did'nt even say a single prayer for all the victims of Morakot. They were more concerned about their beautiful, award winning letters to Pres. Obama and the US SC even at the very moment Morakot was bulldozing Ciaolin village.
"Dawn says:
Those who killed the indigenous people on Taiwan were the brutal Chinese settlers at least one hundred years ago.."
Yeah, your brutal forefathers killed many 'Native Taiwanese Naruwans'. At least you admit this sad historical fact unlike many Formosites here who believes Richie's Harry Truman version hook, line ans sinker.
Richie, the opening ceremony of the University Games in Kao Hsiung last month and the ongoing Deaf Olympics in Taipeh both featured the Native Taiwanese Naruwans dance, songs and culture very prominenly.
You can see clearly they don't look like your Formosite Hans .
BTW most members of the Taiwan Little League Baseball Teams are also Naruwans!
thanks to roger lin's coaching CSB is now being investigated for possible treason.
Congratulations to Michael Richardson!
The one and only winner of this case.
Excellent article by Michael Richardson...
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