My Take | Western media ignore crackdown on opposition in Taiwan by Lai
Mainstream reporting targets illiberal regimes in Europe, but favours the island leader and his pro-US, independence-seeking government
The Western news media have gone out of their way to report on every mass protest against the governments in Hungary and Serbia. But when there was a huge rally against the government in Taiwan, there was not a word.
The issues that prompted the mass rallies in all three places are quite similar – the use of legislative or judicial means to cripple the opposition in a system of government that either is, or is moving towards, what political scientists call illiberal democracy.
You can understand why, though. Those recalcitrant central Europeans have been very naughty so far as the European Union is concerned. Viktor Orban of Hungary has long been a thorn in the side of Brussels.
The EU has effectively blocked Serbia’s application to become a member state because it has refused to join the pan-European sanctions against Russia. So those governments are put under a microscope, but their opposition is put on a pedestal.
Talk about double standards. In Taiwan, the opposition has been targeted since the pro-American and independence-seeking DPP lost its majority in the legislature.
The opposition Kuomintang (KMT), which helped organise the latest mass protests, claimed more than 200,000 people took part. Police reported about 60,000.