Press & Interviews — Ross Cline
Press & Interviews
Ross Cline 柯受恩
For podcast hosts, journalists, researchers, and legislators. Everything on this page can be verified against the documents linked at the bottom.
Ninety seconds, recorded in Phnom Penh, September 2026.
What I say in the video
My name is Ross Cline. In 2019, during a dispute with my landlord in Taiwan, I posted my own signed lease online for two days. I do not dispute that. Taiwan enforces its privacy law criminally, and I was sentenced to six months in prison. I cannot read Chinese. Taiwan's own law required a court interpreter for me. Across four years, no interpreter was ever appointed and no document was translated. Taiwan's Supreme Prosecutors Office confirmed both facts in writing in December 2025, and in the same letter refused to reopen the case. My summons literally says: if you do not read Chinese, bring your own translator. My only interpreter was a chatbot. I now live in Phnom Penh, because going home means prison. I am not asking you to say a court was wrong. I am asking for thirty minutes on your show to walk through the documents. Everything is at rosscline.com/pages/press.
Who I am
I'm Ross Cline (柯受恩), a Canadian from Deer Island, New Brunswick. For fifteen years I ran an English school in Taichung, Taiwan, and taught more than a thousand Taiwanese children. I loved the place enough to begin naturalization. I now live in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, because going home to Taiwan means prison.
The story in sixty seconds
In 2019, during a dispute with my landlord, I posted my own signed lease online for about two days. Taiwan enforces its Personal Data Protection Act criminally: I was sentenced to six months in prison, final at the Supreme Court in October 2024. I do not dispute that I posted it.
I cannot read Chinese. Taiwan's own law has required a court interpreter for defendants like me since 2020. Across four years of proceedings, none was ever appointed and no document was translated. On 22 December 2025, Taiwan's Supreme Prosecutors Office confirmed both facts in writing, and in the same letter refused to reopen the case. In April 2026, Taiwan's National Human Rights Commission reported that the failure is systemic, borne mainly by Southeast Asian migrant workers. My summons prints, in Chinese: "If you do not read Chinese, please bring your own translator." My only interpreter was AI chatbots.
「如不識中文請自行偕同翻譯到場協助」
"If you do not read Chinese, please bring your own translator."
Five things I can talk about
What is documented
What I will not claim on your show
Formats and logistics
Video or audio, any platform, any hour (Phnom Penh, UTC+7). Fluent English; conversational Mandarin, and I can arrange a Mandarin interpreter for Chinese-language shows. Documents can be shared on screen. No fee sought, no approval over questions requested.
Book an interview →Book directly: rosscline.com/pages/calendar
Email: rosscline@gmail.com
Phone / WhatsApp: +1 (506) 321-8659
Where the story has appeared
Writing accepted at Escape Artist (forthcoming) and The NAJIT Observer, the blog of the U.S. National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (forthcoming). The case is before members of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights of Canada and the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights.
Downloads
One-page guest sheet (PDF/Word): available on request by email until it is posted here. Full document index: iLearn.tw/newsbrief. The story in my own words: rosscline.com/blogs/scam.
