Martin Lee and the Communists

Martin Lee spoke at a lawyer's march protesting the extradition bill last year

I read an article in The Guardian today about Martin Lee Chu-ming, the founding chairman of the United Democrats of Hong that subsequently became the Democratic Party.

The 81-year-old was arrested last month on charges of organizing and participating in an illegal assembly in Victoria Park on August 18 last year.

He told The Guardian that his father, Lee Yin-wo was a general in the Kuomintang army who fought against the Japanese. After the Communists defeated the KMT, many went to Taiwan, but Lee moved his family to Hong Kong. Martin Lee was born there in 1938 when his mother was on vacation, and they went back to China.

Martin Lee with his father Lee Yin-wo and son Joseph

Martin was 11 years old when the family moved to Hong Kong and his father became a school teacher at a Jesuit school called Wah Yan College, Kowloon.

Many years later Lee told his son he chose to move the family to Hong Kong because it was a safe haven for his children, and he didn't want to be involved with either the KMT or the Communists.

He felt the KMT were corrupt, and the Communists were not to be trusted.

Even though Lee knew Zhou Enlai from their student years studying in France together, Zhou invited the elder Lee back to China many times, but he declined the offer.

He told his son: "Don't trust the Communist party. When they need you, they'd give you everything, but when they're done they'd drop you, kick you and stamp on you."

Martin Lee has always remembered this.

In the early 1980s, Lee was one of the 23 Hongkongers who was on the Basic Law Drafting Committee. But when the Tiananmen Square massacre happened in June 1989, he criticized Beijing for crushing the democracy movement and Lee was banned from the body.

Lee was arrested last month for illegal assembly last August

In 1994 Lee founded the Democratic Party and has been a thorn in the side of Beijing ever since, a "traitor" for lobbying western countries' support of Hong Kong democracy.

He thinks it is ironic that the safe haven that his father moved his family to is now under threat with the proposal to pass the national security law on Thursday.

"They [Beijing] have completely breached the [Sino-British joint declaration] agreement," Lee said. "There should be only one body to legislate laws in Hong Kong and that's that's the legislative council."

Lee said the most chilling aspect of China's move was that "they have set a precedent for Beijing to legislate on Hong Kong's behalf. We're the meat on the chopping board."

Police used the water cannon against protesters, reporters

Since 2003 Beijing has wanted to legislate the national security law, and the urgency has quickened due to its claim that last year's protests were due to "foreign forces"; it is applying the national security laws through the Basic Law's Annex III that allows national laws to be implemented.

Lee said Chinese laws can only be applied through this mechanism of they are related to defense, foreign affairs, or "matters outside Hong Kong's autonomy", but the national security laws do not fall into any of these categories.

In addition, Lee said what the current Chinese regime is doing goes against late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's desire to keep Hong Kong without change for 50 years so that China could catch up.

"Deng Xiaoping wanted 'one country, two systems' because he wanted China to change," Lee said. "Now China doesn't even want to follow the rules of its own book... they are unwilling to undercut their power and they fear you're a threat. But if you continue to suppress people like this, things will explode."

Police fired several rounds of tear gas at protesters

And they did this afternoon, with thousands of people ignoring social-distancing regulations and coming out in Causeway Bay to vent their anger towards the national security bill. They shouted slogans, like "Hong Kong independence is the only way out!"

They clashed with police who responded with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons. Some 180 people were arrested, many people were injured.

Like Lee, the protesters don't trust the Communists either and don't want to go down without a fight.

"I won't allow this to be end of Hong Kong," said Lee. "Hong Kong may be a tragedy but I won't give up... even if you jail me, kill me. I will still point out it's their fault. Democracy will come to China one day."

Tsai's Re-election Poses Challenge to Beijing

Tsai's winning smile after solidifying her re-election for the next four years

As expected, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was relected by a huge margin with over 8 million votes, while her challenger, Han Kuo-yu the Kuomintang Kaohsiung mayor only mustered 3 million ballots.

"I also hope that the Beijing authorities understand that democratic Taiwan, and our democratically elected government, will not concede to threats and intimidation," Tsai said. She added cross-strait relations should be based in "peace, equality, democracy and dialogue".

Han ran on platform of closer times to China for prosperity

This was not the result Beijing was expecting -- it had pinned its hopes on Han, but the seeing how the Hong Kong protests were handled and the reports on how Uighurs are treated in Xinjiang resulted in a big blow for the motherland hoping to move one step closer towards reunification.

While Xinhua only reported on the result of the elections, Beijing quickly spun the result as seeing Tsai's win as a setback and not a crisis. Therefore Beijing will continue to put pressure on Taiwan, but at the same time will adopt a wait-it-out strategy.

Although China has banned mainland tourists from visiting Taiwan as individual travelers and must join a tour group instead, the election results show the Taiwanese don't seem to mind how this has had a knock-on effect on their economy. In fact the island has had its lowest unemployment in decades and has strong export growth.

The election was a referendum on for or against China

The election was basically a referendum on if people were anti- or pro-China. The former won by a landslide.

So let's see... Hong Kong's district council elections were predominantly yellow and now Taiwan's is a strong green for the Democratic Progressive Party, how does Beijing plan to turn both of them red at this rate?

Taiwan's New Chapter

Tsai Ing-wen is Taiwan's first female president who was inagurated today

Today is a historic day with the inauguration of Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's first female president.

She wore a straight-forward white jacket and black slacks, which reflected her speech that aimed to get Taiwan back on track and become less reliant on the mainland, much to the ire of Beijing.

Tsai campaigned on this platform which won her and the Democratic Progressive Party a decisive victory, and so she was keen to continue on this theme. She said Taiwan would pursue a new economic model of sustainable development based on the core values of innovation, employment and equitable distribution.

She also stressed the importance to building ties regionally and globally.

Former president Ma Ying-jeou looking sombre with Tsai

However what everyone was listening for was how Tsai would deal with relations with Beijing.

While she acknowledged discussion between the two sides, she stopped short of endorsing the so-called 1992 consensus, where at the time, China and Taiwan agreed they were part of "one China", with each side having its own interpretation of what that meant.

Agreed upon by the previous Kuomintang government, it was the basis on which the two sides began having warming relations, resulting in the start of direct flights, more tourism and investment.

However in the last few years, many Taiwanese felt that former President Ma Ying-jeou sold out and they were fed up with being overwhelmed with mainland tourists, a similar refrain with Hong Kong.

As a result, the Taiwanese wanted someone who would take a stand against the mainland and Tsai was the chosen one.

Nevertheless, the point of contention is that Tsai doesn't endorse the so-called 1992 consensus, instead recognizes it as a "historic fact", which annoyed Beijing immensely.

Paraphernalia featuring Tsai's face on inauguration day

"The two governing parties across the strait must set aside the baggage of history and engage in positive dialogue, for the benefit of the people on both sides," she said.

This led to Beijing issuing a statement via Xinhua, saying Tsai did not go far enough in acknowledging the so-called 1992 consensus, calling her remarks "an incomplete examination paper", as if she were a petulant student.

Since her election, Beijing has taken a more aggressive stance on Tsai and her administration, and renew challenges to the island's recognition by 22 states including the Vatican.

Tsai seems ready to deal with Beijing's combative style with her own way of doing things. The former law professor and trade negotiator knows exactly what she's up against and it remains to be seen how deftly she deals with the hisses and criticisms across the Taiwan Strait.

Saturday Singapore Watching

All eyes will be on Singapore when the two Chinese leaders meet here

There was a lot of buzz last night Hong Kong time when it was announced that an historic meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou -- the first of its kind since 1949 -- would take place this Saturday in Singapore.

The Taiwanese side claims they were the ones to initiate the meeting, and clarified that the United States was not involved at all.

Xi and Ma's meeting will be first high-level talks since 1949

It's interesting this unprecedented meeting takes before Taiwanese elections in January 2016, when Ma is expected to step down. His party, the Kuomintang are doing badly in the opinion polls, as many Taiwanese are frustrated and tired of the KMT cosying up so much to the mainland.

Taiwan is flooded with mainland Chinese visitors and many frictions erupt, very similar to the ones in Hong Kong, though because the Taiwanese have a Japanese-style temperament, they try to be polite and hold in their disdain...

Ma's office has already stated that the purpose of his trip is to "consolidate cross-strait peace and maintain the status quo", and that he would not sign any agreements, nor issue any joint statements with China during the trip.

It's interesting Singapore was chosen, but it's a relatively neutral site compared to say Hong Kong.

The mainland has a good relationship with the Lion City, while the city state also has a close informal relationship with Taiwan and the two signed a free trade pact in 2013.

This is a politically sensitive time for Ma's party in Taiwan

Both sides will be watching very closely for body language clues and of course which words are chosen in statements.

It's not going to resolve everything, but it's an intriguing first step forward to see how the leaders like or dislike each other, what they talk about and how this gets the ball rolling on future talks.

However if Taiwan elects the Democratic Progressive Party or DPP back into power, which is all for pro-independence, will that derail chances of future talks?

The cross-straits relationship is such a fascinating thing to watch!

Taipei Day Two: Cultural Immersion

Fog prevents us from seeing the view of the ocean from Jiufen

This morning we headed out of Taipei over an hour's drive to Yilan County (宜蘭縣), where many families like to go on the weekends. There isn't too much pollution and the water from the mountains is considered to be very clean and fresh.

The street scene at the National Center for Traditional Arts

To get there we had to go through Asia's second-longest tunnel -- 12.5km -- built during Chen Shui-bian's administration and it helped cut the travel time from two hours to one.

We arrived at the National Center for Traditional Arts, a complex built like a traditional Chinese street where local artisans and performers can have a platform to not only sell their products but also practice some traditional arts.

One of the shops sold small ceramic pipes shaped like ducks, turtles, vases, and so on. The owner gave us a quick demonstration and gave a free instruction book with music for customers to try.

A demonstration on a ceramic duck pipe

Another sold soaps made of natural ingredients, using various scents, such as lavender, green tea, Taiwanese coffee and orchid. The natural soaps are supposed to be non allergenic and good for the skin. So naturally we bought a few bars to try. There are also soaps for washing clothes... but don't we all just throw things into the washing machine these days?

Then a procession came by and it was a group of performers clearing the main path for a character called Liao Tianding (廖添丁) who was a real-life person who lived during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan.

People describe him as a Robin Hood figure who robbed from the rich and the Japanese government to give to the poor. Here Liao was dressed in a long traditional Chinese robe wearing a hat and spectacles and sitting by a table with a teapot and cup.

His entrance was the premise to a series of performances on a stage which interestingly began in Japanese, harking back to the occupation period.

The tea house that inspired Spirited Away

After lunch we drove for two hours to Jiufen (九份), a small town in a very mountainous area. It's called Jiufen because in the beginning nine families moved there and when shipments arrived in town, they would ask for jiufen, or "nine portions".

In 1893, gold was discovered there and soon the place was swamped with gold diggers hoping to strike it rich.

The days of finding gold are gone, but the town has been revitalized thanks to director Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness in 1989 starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai that talks about the "White Terror" period when the Kuomintang, having arrived from China after its defeat in 1949, rounded up thousands of Taiwanese, sending them to prison or executing them. 

Another film, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away in 2001 was inspired by Jiufen and in particular a tea house called Ah Mei Cha Lou. As a result many Japanese tourists like to make their pilgrimage to this place. That combined with narrow stairs made it a very crowded area.

Taiwanese crepe filled with shaved peanut and ice cream

Other than the movie references, Jiufen is very popular, particularly on the weekends, where tourists descend on the area as well as Taiwanese who come and stay in the various B&Bs. The narrow streets are filled with small shops selling all kinds of snacks, from stinky tofu both deep fried and braised, fish balls, marinated chicken hearts, and grilled sausages and squid.

We tried some interesting snacks, such as a crepe with a layer of peanut and dark sugar shaved from a block, then two small scoops of ice cream added before it was wrapped up and put in a small plastic bag. The crepe was crunchy, soft and cold at the same time making it a delicious treat but had to be eaten quickly. 

Braised stinky tofu, with the spicy ones on the right

Another traditional dessert is cubes of taro with glutinous rice balls in a sweet green bean soup. It wasn't too sweet, but hard for one person to finish a bowl. This shop was so popular that it has one shop stall for selling the concoction with a seating area behind it and then another shop a few stalls down just for patrons to sit and eat.

One of many stray cats hanging out at Jiufen. Dogs too!

We ended up having dinner in a tea house a bit further down the way that was lit with red lanterns. The meal featured home-style dishes, such as braised fish and braised spicy tofu, a plate of tong choi or morning glory, stir-fried cabbage, chicken and a simple soup of egg white and seaweed. We also had a plate of stir-fried squid.

It's interesting to see how much of an impact the Japanese occupation had on Taiwan. The Taiwanese resented the colonial period but at the same time the Japanese improved the infrastructure of the island. The Japanese influence on cuisine is also prevalent, with dishes on the whole being light, and pickled vegetables are common. 

The night scene overlooking Jiufen

Meanwhile the Japanese love Taiwanese rice which is similar to Japanese rice, short and round unlike the narrow Thai jasmine rice. The Taiwanese are also very proud of their agricultural industry, constantly improving the quality of its rice, fruits and vegetables. Perhaps it has to do with its food security, making Taiwan self sufficient. But in the process it has created a food industry where there are a number of tourists (like those from Hong Kong) who just come to eat, eat, eat.