Bye-bye.
OK. Thanks very much.
Thanks very much. I will send you the article when it’s published. Probably it will be next Friday or possibly the Friday after.
Thank you very much for your time. It’s been very interesting.
It’s hard to imagine a transgender person in a senior political position in China. Do you think your career is an example of how Taiwan and China are moving further apart?
Would you say over the past 10 or 20 years that Taiwan has become more liberal in this respect? I’m not just talking about government bureaucracy but overall, the overall attitude towards diversity.
How about previously in your life, when you were younger? Did you meet more prejudice at that time?
Turning to your transgender personality, you have not encountered any kind of prejudice from politicians or members of the bureaucracy over the last few years?
What we’ll see in the future is maybe an Internet-based democracy with perhaps several referenda a day?
Would you say the current politics where you have clearly delineated camps belongs to yesterday and we’re moving towards a future where there will be more dimensions in politics?
Can you give an example how you feel that both sexes are…that you don’t feel any distance with either sex.
I was wondering whether you as a transgender person have encountered any problems or any challenges being in the position you are in now where you have a significant amount of political power?
Do you think people not just in Taiwan but everywhere, are missing out by sometimes excluding people like that instead of including them all?
Can you give us other examples, apart from the one with the soccer field that we’ve just talked about?
It’s not so much a political statement about inclusiveness as it is about the inherent benefits associated with involving individuals with those unique perspectives and skills, so…
Yeah. It’s just because this particular example of people with Down syndrome is particularly interesting. Was there something about a soccer field? They were involved in designing something like that…?
Another thing I would like to ask you is I read that you have offered preferential access to government contracts for companies that employ people with Down syndrome. Is that correct?
Yeah, that’s a very good example. I’m very grateful for that. It definitely illustrates it really well, I think.
Yeah. I’m writing for people who don’t have a very deep understanding of Asian culture. I was just wondering if you could maybe give a very specific example of something that Lao Tzu or Buddha said which can be transformed into practical advice about how to conduct bureaucratic work today.
Do you think, in the coming years, we’ll see a bigger influence deriving from Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, and Buddhist principles, and also in the way that government is being performed in certain Asian societies?
Would you say that East Asia, so far, speaking very generally, has been following the Confucian principles more than Buddhist and Taoist principles?
We can say that your approach is aligned with Lao Tzu and Buddha, and Buddhism.
I’m asking you because this is not something I say myself, but I talk to Chinese people. Some Chinese people or people with a Chinese cultural background, they want the rigid bureaucracy. They want to be told what to do. If the boss turns their back to them, they’ll immediately ...
I think you just mentioned that you don’t tell people what to do. Is that correct?
Is this a first in the world, or have you used a model from other countries when setting up this ministry?
No officials or analysts? They’re all representatives from other ministries?
How many people do you have working for you or working with you?
Did the Ministry of Defense say why they did not send an official?
Haven’t you come across any officials with many years or decades of government work behind them that are opposed to this kind of…
Has it been a challenge, as an anarchist, to enter into government work and work with rigid bureaucracies?
In what way?
I’d like to ask a few questions about yourself as a transgender person in politics. My first question is I’ve seen you described as an anarchist. Is that an apt description?
Is there anything the outside world should do about this? Should we just let that develop or follow their own course in China? Is there something that outside actors should do to try and influence developments inside China?
Given China’s record over the past several years in the area, are you basically optimistic or pessimistic regarding the Internet as a force for democracy in China?
If you look narrowly at China, do you see the Internet as a force for democracy there?
Do you think the Taiwan experience could help pointing the way towards how the Internet could be a force for democracy in China?
Is there one particular piece of policy that you can point to that has been particularly instrumental in promoting this goal of making broadband a human right, to turn that into reality?
You’ve been in your current position three years and two months, as far as I understand?
What would you say to officials in the West who say that we need to keep an eye on our citizens in order to prevent there being terrorist attacks?
I’m asking because in Europe we almost see the opposite trend. We see government officials being more and more keen to look into the private matters of citizens at the same time as they’ve perhaps become less transparent than they were before, sometimes with reference to the need to counteract, ...
Is that a correct way to phrase it?
Could we also rephrase it as saying the citizens have a right to monitor the government, but the government does not necessarily have a right to monitor its citizens?
I saw you quoted elsewhere saying that governments must be transparent to the citizens, but the other way around, there’s no…
Of course, broadband, it’s a two-way street. It can also be used to indoctrinate people. Is it a risk that it can be abused by governments? What can be done about that?
In this particular area, it would seem that China is also very progressed. There’s almost universal access to the Internet.
Why is it a human right? Why is it so important?
Is that something that you think should be a human right, universally, for all mankind?
I would like to turn to your philosophies as a minister at the head of a major bureaucracy. First of all, you’ve mentioned that broadband is a human right. I wondered if you could elaborate on that
Is Taiwan doing anything actively to try and counteract this?
Yeah, regarding Taiwan.