Talking Heads in Taiwan
A Japanese scholar accused the China Times (中國時報) of fabricating his analysis of the results of the leadership election for Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party. Yoshiyuki Ogasawara (小笠原欣幸), a political scientist and honorary chair professor at National Tsing Hua University who specializes in Taiwan politics, posted his analysis on Facebook on October 22 after Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) won the KMT chairmanship with just over 50 percent of the vote. Multiple media outlets in Taiwan reported Ogasawara’s commentary, but the scholar singled out the China Times for distorting his remarks.
Ogasawara publicly detailed the discrepancies on October 23, noting that the China Times had transformed his characterization of Cheng’s clearly pro-China line (明確的親中路線) into language instead emphasizing “historical-cultural continuity” (歷史文化的延續). He alleged that the newspaper had fabricated entire quotes that he never wrote, including claims about the party “rebuilding confidence” (重建自信). Ogasawara demanded that the matter be addressed as a matter of professionalism. “If the China Times still has media self-respect,” he said, “please make corrections.” The China Times subsequently deleted the article, but to date has not issued a correction.
