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China and Hong Kong: Ex-president's life sentence, a farce or a victory?

· Written by Winglok Hung

Categories: East Asia, China, Hong Kong (China), Taiwan (ROC), Governance, Law, Politics

Former Taiwanese leader Portnoy [1] has made an excellent summary of Twitterers’ responses from Taiwan. Here I would like to add to the discussion by collecting more opinions and discussions from mainland China and Hong Kong, which, very interestingly, are pointing at very different conclusions.

China: A farce of Democracy

There is a hot debate on whether Chen's life sentence is a farce or victory of democracy.

Wuluwufu [2] from state-owned Qiangguo Forum [3]argued that Chen's life sentence is a farce of Taiwan's democratic system.

陈水扁是靠操弄民主而上台的,一个操弄虚假利益冲突而捞个人实际利益的政客欺骗得了大多数民众,也太小看民众的智商了,它只不过表明一个最低政治操守都没有的政客是不能被利益强势集团容忍的,清除出局应是陈水扁注定的结局.

Chen came into office by manipulating democracy. He is a politician who is stealing personal gains by defrauding the public. He has underestimated people intelligence and his life sentence shows that a politician with low integrity cannot be intolerable be the interest groups in power. It is inevitable that Chen be kicked out from the political scene.

从这个意义上说,民主是局部地胜利了,法制也如帮规一样惩戒不守规矩的前帮主.但这种胜利如果超出这个范围去宣讲,甚致说是人民民意的胜利就太可笑了,反而,从大的角度看,说是民主法制的胜利勿宁说是民主法制的又一丑剧

It may be valid to say that it is a partial victory of democracy as the legal institution had punished the former outlaw leader. However, it would be a joke if we overstate such victory as a manifestation of “people power”. On the contrary, from a broader point of view, it is a farce rather than a victory of the democratic institutional system.

111.167.234 [2]added in the comment section,

记住了，陈水扁是卸任成了老百姓之后，台湾司法才敢制裁他。在任上的官僚陈水扁，台湾司法屁也不如。所以，台湾司法只敢欺负百姓。

Remember, Taiwan’s court started to sue Chen only after he became an ordinary citizen. Taiwan judiciary was in a mess when Chen was still in power. We can say that, Taiwan legal institution only bullies the ordinary people.

Hong Kong: A victory of Democracy

However, Xiaoren [4]from Hong Kong celebrated Chen’s life sentence as a victory of democracy in his blog,

台灣民主o既成功，證明法院係由人民開，而唔係政府。

有民主先有民生，如果香港呢家已經好似台灣咁民主發展得咁成熟，真係唔知會有幾多官員因為某 d 事件而下台。

The success of Taiwan’s democracy proves that the court is for the people, not the government,
People’s livelihood is based on democracy, if Hong Kong’s democratic progress is as mature as Taiwan’s, I cannot estimate how many governmental leaders have to step down…

Several netizens from Hong Kong Golden Forum used the graphic picture below to celebrate Chen's sentence. It said: “let's sing and dance!”

chen's

In Hong Kong Discussion Forum [5], a netizen udbkam posted [6] a question, asking “Do you agree that Chen’s corruption is a minor problem because Taiwan enjoys universal suffrage?”

Helios agreed [7]

呢個我同意，
至少陳水扁貪污之後唔會不了了之，
對岸嘛，想知邊個唔貪都難．．．．．．

I agree with that,
at least Chen’s corruption case comes to a conclusion.
Across the strait, people do not even know who’re involved (in corruption)…..

Eric_from_1986 [8]further elaborated,

將陳水扁「手多多」得來的錢跟大陸貪官比較，簡直蚊脾同牛脾，輸足十條街

但係阿扁咁樣已經要坐穿牢底，大陸呢？

The amount of money taken away by Chen's dirty hands is only a fraction of the corrupt officialdom in the mainland China, but Chen was punished for life sentence, will that happen in mainland China?

Carlucci [9]also shared similar view,

今天我很羨慕台灣人. 能把前貪污總統判無期徒刑. 公義得以申張. 中國人民共和國? 何時才能這樣???

Today I am so envious of Taiwan people that they could sentence their former corrupt president to life in prison. Justice has been served. Until when the People’s Republic of China will be able to do that?

Anti-CCP sentiment at work?

Another debate among Hong Kong netizens over Chen's sentence is on whether or not Chen's sentence is a result of the anti- Chinese Communist party's sentiment in Taiwan (as corruption is the biggest problem in China). It is interesting to note that such opinion is very different from some Taiwanese netizens viewpoint that the Taiwanese ruling party KMT is trying to please CCP with Chen's life imprisonment (via Portnoy's post).

Helen17162 [10] in Hong Kong Discussion Forum disagreed with such association,

陳水扁的例子同反共有什麼關系呢？法律面前人人平等，人類生存才有希望，台灣加油啊，給中國共產党一個好好的警鐘，貪官的下場，沒有明天社會是黑暗的。中國要同台灣談統戰，共產党好好改革喇，走向民主法律的社會才是中華民族之褔。

I don't see the relation between Chen’s case with anti-communism? People are all equal under the law so that there is hope for our future. Add oil Taiwan! and alerts the CCP and its corrupt officials the consequence of corruption. Our society will be in darkness if we can't see the future. Chinese needs to reform itself if it wants to apply United Front strategy with Taiwan . A society that moves towards the institutional democratic system will bring fortune of all ethnic groups in China.

(P.S the thumb nail picture is from NF daily news)