Taiwan Talkback

We have read “The Taiwan Connection” (by Marlowe Hood, Oct. 9) with disappointment and feel obliged to register our protest. The article’s figures for the kilos of heroin seized in Taiwan were incorrect. Except in 1980 and 1981, more than three kilos of heroin were seized each year in the 1980s, and in 1983, 1984 and 1986-89, more than 10 kilos were confiscated. True, the year 1993 was a peak year, with 1,113.9 kilos of heroin seized, but the first eight months of 1993 saw a 30% decline in the amount confiscated. The figure was 579.63 kilos, not 1,000 kilos as the article stated.

Taiwan is not a transit point for drugs or illegal immigrants. The accusation that Taiwan is a major transit area rests primarily on the assumption that “the massive amounts of heroin seized is far in excess of the amount needed to supply the Republic of China’s domestic needs,” according to a 1993 FBI report cited in the article. However, the number of drug abusers may total 240,000-480,000 people, and the republic’s “domestic needs” have created a large market that consumes thousands of kilos of heroin and methamphetamines each year. It is inconceivable for drug traffickers to smuggle heroin into Taiwan and run a great risk again by smuggling it out to the United States when it can be readily sold in Taiwan at good prices.

No political corruption has been found so far. The 1993 International Narcotic Control Strategy Report published by the State Department in April, 1994, states that “authorities are increasingly involved in combatting the rapidly growing drug-abuse problem. Taiwan’s drug laws are being strengthened.”

Accusations of high officials who are involved in the smuggling rings have never been independently verified either by U.S. officials or authorities of the republic. We welcome any information in this regard.

Finally, the article incorrectly quoted Justice Minister Ma as saying, when asked whether any linkages remained between the government and organized crime, “That was a long time ago.” In fact, the minister does not know about any of these “links” and would appreciate being apprised of any evidence of corruption involving officials.

Ying-chao Wu, director Department of Prosecutorial Affairs

Ministry of Justice

Taipei, Taiwan

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Hood responds: According to Taiwan’s government-run China News Agency, on April 15, 1993, “police seized an average of 3 or 4 kilos of (heroin) each year before 1989,” a figure confirmed by Taiwan’s National Police Administration. But even if Wu’s marginally higher figures are correct, the point is that seizures soared 819% between 1990 and 1993. As for 1994, the same NPA source showed me an internal report indicating that more than 900 kilos had been seized as of May.

Taiwan no doubt faces a growing drug-abuse problem. But surely Wu does not mean, as his calculations suggest, that one in 25 inhabitants of Taiwan is a heroin addict. Wu also attempts a statistical sleight-of-hand: Most of the 47,836 drug offenders convicted in 1993 abused amphetamines (“ice”), not heroin. As for “re-export,” yes, it does make sense for a drug trafficker. Until recently, at least, Taiwan was less suspect to U.S. Customs as a “port of origin” than, say, Thailand.

Wu asserts that “no political corruption has been uncovered so far.” This year alone his ministry indicted more than 300 politicians, including 38% of all local councilors, in the worst vote-buying scandal in Taiwan’s history. Then there is the case of a naval officer murdered after uncovering major corruption in arms procurement. One year later, tape-recorded evidence has been mysteriously erased and multiple investigations have stalled. These cases are not related to immigrant smuggling and drugs, but they do point to criminality and corruption in high places.

Multiple revisions and editing resulted in my quoting Ma somewhat out of context. What he referred to as happening “a long time ago” was not links between organized crime and government in general but the specific example of the 1984 murder of journalist Henry Liu, a naturalized U.S. citizen who published an unflattering biography of Taiwan’s then-President Chiang Chingkuo.