【明報專訊】JAMAL Khashoggi, a Washington Post reporter of Saudi Arabian descent, was missing for a number of days. Now the Saudi Arabian authorities have finally admitted that he was killed in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey. The official explanation of the incident, however, was grossly dubious, and the fact that Khashoggi's body has yet to be found has fuelled rumours that he was dismembered alive. The murder of Khashoggi is redolent of the murder of Chiang Nan in the 1980s, which shocked Taiwan, and the assassination of Kim Jong-nam last year. The murder has shattered the moderate, liberal image consciously cultivated by Saudi Arabia in recent years and exposed its authoritarian and dictatorial nature. With his soft criticism and the absence of "maximum pressure", US president Donald Trump is actually offering a great help to Saudi Arabia, which accentuates the superiority of political interests in the international arena. The so-called moral high ground is only for political spinning. The case of Khashoggi is another ugly chapter of international politics with cover-ups by the powerful, who try to play down the matter. Such being the case, it is difficult to unearth the truth.