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Envoy's double life stirs furor 郭冠英接受多倫多平面媒體訪問 — 原文照登, 不作評論
2009/03/25 10:03:16瀏覽1045|回應0|推薦17
最近因言論引起台灣以及多倫多僑界滿城風雨的前新聞局駐多倫多台北經文處新聞組長郭冠英日前接受本地媒體(多倫多星報)訪問。 今天報紙刊出了這篇報導, 我把原文照登, 附上原始連結。 訪談內容基本上跟他接受台灣媒體訪問沒太大出入。 我不作評論、 不翻譯(那來那麼多加拿大時間)有興趣的可以看看, 學學英文。

Envoy's double life stirs furor
 

Taiwan orders home chief spokesperson in Toronto after he called countrymen 'rednecks, primitives'

Mar 24, 2009 04:30 AM
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Tony Wong
STAFF REPORTER

For months, Kuo Kuan-ying has been leading something of a double life. As a senior diplomat based in Canada, he has been the chief spokesperson for the Taiwanese government in Toronto.

But in his off-hours the gregarious ex-journalist has been penning controversial columns on the Internet that have made him the target of protests and death threats after some legislators in Taipei accused him of defaming his country.

Yesterday, Kuo was suspended from his job as director of the information division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office and called back to Taiwan after he admitted in a television interview that aired in Asia yesterday that he was the author of articles that had stirred outrage in Taipei for calling the country's majority population "rednecks" and "primitives."

In an interview with the Star in Toronto last Friday, Kuo staunchly defended his position.

"It is really a ridiculous situation that has gotten out of control," he said. "They are attacking my freedom of speech instead of defending it."

Kuo said "despite the consequences" he intended to tell authorities he was indeed Fan Lan-chin, the author of articles that have been published in newspapers and on the Internet in a blog.

"I think it is important that even if people disagree with what I say, that I have the opportunity to say what I feel," said Kuo, a well-known figure in Toronto's Chinese community. The diplomat and former journalist with the United Daily News has been leading the newscasts in his homeland, as reporters tried to determine if he was the infamous Fan Lan-chin.

Hours after the newscast, Taiwanese government information officer Su Chun-pin said a panel had determined Kuo had "damaged" Taiwan's image overseas by making controversial remarks.

In Toronto, Kuo said he was asked not to report to work at his Yonge and Richmond Sts. office over the last few weeks because it might constitute a security threat.

He has been in Canada since September and was joined by his wife last month. His son lives in Vancouver.

Fearing for the safety of his family in Taiwan, he says he has been asked if he would consider political asylum in Canada.

"My first allegiance is to Taiwan," he says. "But this is a country I really love, and I hope I have not lost my chance to live in a truly lovely place."

Kuo wrote a column for the Taipei United Daily News last month stating there were probably only a thousand people killed in the historic 228 Massacre of 1947. The article effectively made him a holocaust denier in the eyes of many Taiwanese.

The 228 incident (referring to Feb. 28, 1947) was an anti-government uprising that was suppressed by the Kuomintang rulers with estimates ranging from 15,000 to 20,000 dead.

Kuo argues, among other things, that since only a few hundred came forward to claim sizable reparations, there couldn't be that many victims.

In another article, Kuo allegedly advocated the use of military force by China if necessary to take control of Taiwan.

Beijing has always claimed Taiwan as a province of China.

He says because he wrote the articles under a pen name, they should be permissible under free speech. "I did not write as the official government view," he says.

His superiors disagreed this week, with Su stressing that government officials are not allowed to make derogatory remarks under the pretext of freedom of speech.
( 時事評論人物 )
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