Actually I liked the final quote. It is the truth when it comes to TPTB. But then when they fight you they start out by smearing your name but do to Tethers non open backing they have already smeared their own name so step one is already checked off. 
but it has nothing to do with crypto. it's all to do with taiwan's slack regulations. there's a ton of non crypto payment processors who were attracted there because of that and now they have the same problem.
The difficulty is the same that Bitfinex is having - international wires to and from Taiwan are blocked. This means that while the reserve is in surplus, only Taiwanese customers can actually redeem tethers at 1:1. (This includes Bitfinex, who has Taiwanese banks as well). No one being able to move funds to Kraken also means that those in Taiwan who would otherwise be filling the gap (and thus defending the peg) are unable to do so (but I hear that people are in Taiwan getting this set up to take advantage of this).
Its an extremely frustrating scenario, for sure. I do feel this is an attack on crypto companies, though - my guess is that after the asian banks, the european ones will be next and well see this expand to include more blockchain business being unable to move funds. I hope not, but this is what it feels like.
I absolutely would not say that Taiwans regulations are slack - theyre actually higher than most international standards, and Tethers KYC/AML policies are even stricter beyond that.
Craig