The Gov’t Fabricating Fake News Will Precisely Rock the Nation’s Foundation

 The Gov’t Fabricating Fake News Will Precisely Rock the Nation’s Foundation

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

April 19, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Fake news has become the DPP government’s pretext for its governance incompetence and loss of people's hearts; before the nine-in-one local elections last yearend, President Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP government repeatedly pointed out that their low support ratings in public opinion were the result of external forces colluding with internal foes in fabricating fake news.

Every man in the street knew what calculations President Tsai was making. According to President Tsai’s logic, the low support ratings for the government are not because of maladministration, but the fault of fake news; the source of fake news is from the other side of the Strait, so it is an issue of national security. Anybody who criticizes the government may well be fabricating fake news, and may well be a fellow traveler and a hatchet man of the other side of the Strait, while the DPP government, for the good of Taiwan, should stringently control the press and speech because criticizing the government does not belong to freedom of speech.

This kind of logic sends a chill down the spine as if living in a totalitarian country. What is even more ridiculous is that President Tsai has been full of imagination in denouncing the perils of fake news, but she has never introduced concrete evidence sufficient enough to convince the public, nor has she a clear-cut plan for resolving the issue, only repeatedly stressing the importance of national security, attempting to find rationality for controlling speech and the press.

President Tsai fabricates fake news on the one hand, and claims, on the other hand, that fake news is an issue of national security, while, step by step, restricting freedom of speech; this technique of narrative is simply creating rumors like a small kid. The many current actions of the DPP government are only for the preservation of power, more and more showing dictatorial colors. This not only turns the name of democracy and progress in the title of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) into an irony, but also drags the Republic of China into a crisis of democracy and also pushes Taiwan toward the brink of cross-Strait hostilities.

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