ROT not ROC!

Formosa Betrayed is a controversial thriller that exposes the political and human rights abuses of the exiled Republic of China (ROC) government on Taiwan and the US government’s chosen deafness to the Taiwanese people. Set during the more than forty year martial law era in Taiwan, it will certainly grip at the audience’s heart as it did mine. James Van Der Beek, of Dawson’s Creek fame, plays an FBI agent charged with investigating the 1983 brutal murder of a Taiwanese-American professor and political activist in Chicago. When his search takes him to Taiwan, he quickly learns that so-called “free China” is anything but free, and that the US government couldn’t care less.

Formosa Betrayed is based on actual events, and while it is an edge or your seat drama, it is at times interspersed with documentary style. The inspiration for the plot comes from the real life murder of Professor Chen Wen-Chen (陳文成) of Carnegie Mellon University in 1981. While not following an actual historical timeline like Hotel Rwanda or other historical dramas, all of the major events in the movie are based on documented events placed on a new timeline.

Surprisingly, Formosa Betrayed is the first American movie to explore what is sort of an open-secret, the brutality of the US supported ROC government on Taiwan, and the contentious issue of Taiwan independence that is desired by the majority of the Taiwanese people. As with any majority people ruled by a minority, in this case the Taiwanese ruled by the minority Chinese, political power is only kept through savage methods to quell dissent, and Formosa Betrayed exposes this clearly.

As Van Der Beek’s character attempts to finds justice, he runs abruptly into the United States government’s hypocritical policies supporting so-called anti-communist governments without any regard to democracy or human rights. What is interesting about this angle is the US government’s continued hypocrisy along these same lines, it maintains an embargo against Cuba, but continues to flirt with China, another brutal regime, as long as US companies think they can make money there.

Through watching Formosa Betrayed, I came away with a new understanding of the history and situation of the Taiwanese people. I think most audiences will be surprised to find out what went on in Taiwan and what has been effectively swept under the rug until now. What troubles me most after watching this movie is the current situation of Taiwan. It seems that although Taiwan is now a democracy of sorts, attaining this without a bloody revolution as did many of the prior communist countries of eastern Europe, it now may be following the example of Russia. The prior ruling KMT (Chinese Nationalist Party) has somehow gained power again, much of it via corruption and control of the judiciary which it never really let go of, and is now ratcheting back the hard won political, human rights, and press freedoms in order to pull Taiwan into China’s sphere. All the while, as in Formosa Betrayed, not only is the United States seemingly unconcerned, it has actively tried to suppress the majority Taiwanese desire to self-determination and self-rule, choosing for economic and political reasons to instead defer to China’s ridiculous claim of sovereignty over Taiwan.

Although the movie shares the same title as the book, Formosa Betrayed by George H. Kerr, the book covers historical events from WWII on to the 1950′s and the US government’s then abandonment of the Taiwanese to the callous thugocracy run by the late ROC dictator Chiang Kai-shek.

Sold out at film festivals over the past year and a half, Formosa Betrayed came away from several with awards including Best Feature Film and Best Actor. Not only do I highly recommend seeing this movie, I am hopeful that it will cause audiences to take action and not let the US government so callously reject democracy for the Taiwanese when it is the should be the driving policy principle.