Weeks after the political fraud arrests of leaders of Taiwan Civil Government, the organization sponsored The McLaughlin Group television program in Washington. The June 3 episode of the political talk show was broadcast on a local ABC affiliate station.
Lobbyist Neil Hare, representing TCG, was interviewed by show host Tom Rogan, who taped a fifteen minute mock interview with Hare to record material for ninety-second commercials. No mention was made of the arrests of Roger and Julian Lin and others two weeks earlier.
The McLaughlin Group, a reprise of a long-running talking-heads show, features Tom Rogan as host of the weekly program. Rogan is no stranger to controversy and is currently under investigation by the government of Russia for his May 15 advocacy for the bombing of the Crimea bridge by the Ukraine Air Force.
The McLaughlin Group boasts that intellectual honesty is a touchstone of the show described as "your weekly guide to the politics, policies, and personalities governing our nation." Ignoring a request for comment, the claims for intellectual honesty ring hollow in the silence about Taiwan Civil Government sponsorship. The television show joins an ever expanding list of benefactors from TCG sponsorship that won't talk.
Congressional Quarterly 's Roll Call Live talk show, POLITICO magazine, Foreign Policy magazine, and the Heritage Foundation all took TCG money but refuse to comment. The media houses also fail to report on the arrests in Taiwan.
While Roger and Julian Lin sit in solitary confinement, incommunicado, and without bail, the news media whiteout, virtually complete in the United States, has left Washington insiders nervous and in the dark.
The Lins are not garden variety con artists as they are accused of making political claims about the future of Taiwan to attract donations. Taiwan's longstanding unresolved status, since World War II, has left everyone confused about a future path to sovereignty for the island. The pro-American slant of TCG may be attractive to policy makers in Washington where there is a growing focus on the future of Taiwan. TCG urges the United States to expel the exiled Republic of China, installed in1945, and replace it with an interim military government until the future of Taiwan can be held free of ROC interference. The ultimate goal of TCG was formal recognition by the United States as the legitimate government of Taiwan.
Taiwan, situated at the crossroads of Asian maritime commerce, is a vital part of the world economy and of considerable military value. Trapped for seven decades in a strategic ambiguity, the island has a history of four centuries of domination by colonial powers. America's relationship to Taiwan is governed by the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Taiwan Relations Act. Territorial claims on the island by the People's Republic of China have been the driving force of instability in the region. Now that President Trump has quieted the North Korean nuclear threat he is free to turn his attention to the unfinished business of resolving Taiwan's international status.
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