Message from Clay Dube

[clay dube]

The democratization of South Korea and Taiwan over the past two decades are important and seldom told stories. Both were military dictatorships until the late 1980s and both only became multiparty democracies in the late 1990s.

In South Korea, two former generals turned presidents (Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo) have gone to jail, convicted for treason, mutiny, and corruption. And now in Taiwan, there's the prospect that Chen Shui-bian, the man who broke the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) 50 year hold on political power when he was elected president in 2000, could go to jail. Chen was detained for questioning today. He left the presidency in May 2008.

Some charge this prosecution is politically motivated. Others note that Chen has admitted that payments to his wife were funneled into an overseas account.

We had a symposium on Taiwan's democracy and March 2008 presidential election earlier this year. The article includes links to presentations made at the symposium (including election results, historical data, and examples of print advertising):
http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=986

Given the focus last week on the highest ranking cross-strait meeting in 60 years and the focus this week on the arrest of the former president - it would seem a good time to talk with students about Taiwan's struggle to build a democracy and to maintain autonomy while still forging essential economic ties with the mainland.