Completely unacceptable

On my Facebook wall, Alex Raymond alerted me to a Ralph Jennings piece from Saturday titled "Taiwanese show guarded acceptance of China pact."

Do Taiwanese "accept" this so-called Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) at all?

Take a look this particular paragraph of Jennings' article [emphasis mine]:

Political analysts said the size of the protest, a month after a sit-in in Taipei attracted only a few hundred, was an indication that Taiwan's public accepted the deal, wanted to know more details or believed the government was deaf to protests.

The first problem there is that Jennings quotes unnamed "political analysts." Would it make a difference if these "analysts" were close to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the party he chairs, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)? Yes, it would. (See an earlier example of Jennings' use of similar tactics.)

The next problem is the simple lack of deductive logic. The first paragraph of the article claims that the size of Saturday's protest was "10,000" (and Jennings has greatly underestimated the number of attendees at previous protests by pro-Taiwan groups) and then tells readers of a sit-in that happened "a month" ago (which, in reality, was a 3-day protest which ended just 15 days ago) and which "attracted only a few hundred." Gee, according to my math, "10,000" is a much larger number, and 15 days is only half a month.

While it may be correct to say that Taiwanese "believed the government was deaf to protests," note how it's not the single possibility which was placed in the headline. Despite the addition of the word "guarded," the one which does appear there (and in the article minus the qualifier) is the one which is the easiest to disprove.

Just what do Taiwanese think about this ECFA?
Let's look at a poll from the pro-Chinese KMT TVBS which was released just this past Monday (May 31, 2010) [104 kb PDF file] for some indications [translations, emphasis mine]:

公投題目「是否同意政府與中國簽ECFA？」：同意42% v.s.不同意44%

Voting on a referendum which asks: "Should the government sign an ECFA with China?" 42% say "Yes" while 44% say "No."

[...] 15%未表示意見。

[...] 15% expressed no opinion.

[...]

辦 ECFA公投？民眾贊成的比例上升至55%，不贊成則下滑到 30%

Hold a referendum on ECFA? Public support increases to 55%, opposition slips to 30%

[...]

若辦公投，六成（59%）民眾說會去投票 [...]

If there is a referendum, 59% of the public says they will vote [...]

Bias!
I don't trust TVBS, but remember that if there's any bias in their poll, it will be in favor of those pushing this ECFA with China. So, I must wonder: Does Ralph Jennings hate Taiwan and the truth, or will he write just anything -- as long as he keeps getting paid to do so?

Don't just accept what you read, especially not when it's written by "pros" who repeatedly provide you with information that is as easily disputed as the stuff Jennings keeps shoveling.

Bonus
Check out how Reuters dissembles even more by using an image (with a caption that only appears as a pop-up) of cheering Taiwanese atop this version of the article.

---

Counterpoints: Taiwan, 台灣, ECFA, 經濟合作架構協議, Ralph Jennings, 唐甯思, media, 媒體

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: ECFA, media, Ralph Jennings, Taiwan, 台灣, 唐甯思, 媒體, 經濟合作架構協議

Jennings can't read?

Earlier today via Twitter user anitaworld, I came across the latest piece of anti-Taiwan propaganda from Reuters. The headline reads:

One hurt, six detained in Taiwan scuffle over China

The average reader might not have any idea what's beneath that headline. Is Taiwan "fighting to take over China" or something? Since only a small percentage of people read past the headline, it only serves to create confusion about the situation.

Here's what's going on: The Taiwanese protesters are standing up for their sovereignty while deals compromising Taiwan's sovereignty are being signed by two authoritarian parties without the people's consent. But Reuters fails to provide you any of that information which is vital to understanding the story.

Although a scant few more details appear within the article, those details are obscured by a mess of unhelpful memes and outright smearing of the victims in this matter, thus canceling any value they might have otherwise contained.

The anatomy of mendacity
The article begins:

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A police officer was hurt and six people detained late on Wednesday during a protest against a visit by China's top negotiator to Taiwan, officials said.

It was the first violence in four days of protests against the visit of Beijing negotiator Chen Yunlin in Taichung, central Taiwan.

There goes Ralph Jennings (whose byline appears at the bottom of the article) phoning it in from Taipei yet again. If he could read (or maybe a quote by Upton Sinclair is what applies here), the Tuesday December 22, 2009 edition of the Taipei Times (that's two days ago) would have informed him of this violence by police:

A Taichung City policeman was penalized yesterday for using pepper spray on two protesters on Sunday night, but the police said his demerit was for carrying non-standard equipment rather than for assaulting the protesters, adding that he acted in self-defense.

Don't mace me, 兄弟!
The actual incident mentioned above took place four days ago (Sunday, December 20, 2009). "[F]irst violence," my ass! The police were the ones who drew "first blood"! Jennings isn't telling you the truth.

Getting back to the Reuters piece, Jennings feeds the readers generalities:

Also on Wednesday, protesters tried to stop Chen from visiting a temple, taunting police that have guarded every step of his December 21-25 visit, local media reported.

Jennings fails to answer some essential questions for the readers: Who were the protesters? (Were they members of the violent China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP, 中華統一促進黨), members of the peaceful Falun Gong movement, common hooligans, or simply citizens of Taiwan who don't want an authoritarian regime to take over their lives?); Why were the protesters there? (Chen Yunlin has previously threatened Taiwan, and he and his comrades are currently trying to annex Taiwan.); How did they try to stop Chen Yunlin? (Did they use weapons [sticks, stones, knives, guns, Molotov cocktails]? [No.], or did they just stand at the scene, hold up signs, and shout? [Yes.]); Which temple was this, and does it have any special significance? (Could it be Chenlan Temple, a temple which is run by a convicted criminal? [Yes!]); Which local media? (I dunno. Jennings doesn't/won't specify.)

Can you feel just how empty of any actual information that paragraph of the article is? He could have used that space much more efficiently if he had instead explained some of the facts to the readers. Ben Goren's blog Letters from Taiwan has a good list from which lazy reporters could simply copy and paste some terse, well-researched facts about Taiwan.

The generalities above are followed directly by this meme:

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

The full name of the party Jennings is referring to is the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) -- not just the "Nationalists." They fled to Taiwan to save their own asses from Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) Commie bandits (共匪), not to "save Taiwan," as is often purported by those who support the Chinese KMT's authoritarianism.

More importantly, China's "claim" has no legal basis, but Jennings doesn't keep my italicized phrase in his clipboard where he could easily paste it into the article to at least provide some semblance of "balance." And there he goes with that faux-honest "the island" formulation yet again, trying to undermine the fact that Taiwan is an independent country with a population slightly higher than that of the entire "island continent" of Australia (never just "the island [of Australia]").

The article ends with these two paragraphs full of copy-and-paste "journalism" and a byline:

As ties warm under Taiwan's Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou, economic powerhouse China and the export-reliant island agreed on Tuesday to negotiate a trade deal that would cut tariffs.

Protesters oppose closer ties between the governments.

(Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by David Fox)

FOX News Taiwan?
Let's take down the troubling elements one by one.

Note the positive words ascribed to China and Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九): warm, friendly, powerhouse. Note the diminutives ascribed to Taiwan: reliant, island.

What the protesters oppose is not any sort of ties between "governments." What they oppose is unequal party-to-party negotiations taking place behind closed doors with no opposition oversight whatsoever and which evidence shows to be a series of steps leading up to Taiwan's annexation by two authoritarian regimes working hand-in-hand.

How many average readers would have noticed these things upon first reading them? Far too many ordinary people have become numb to this kind of garbage that passes as "journalism."

The writers whom I have repeatedly criticized apparently won't change, so the readers must wake up, stop falling for this, and wake others up as well. Your most basic human rights and your livelihoods -- if not your lives -- are at stake, and mendacious media therefore amounts to just another form of violence.

Further reading/viewing:
* For better coverage of the story, try this article in the Taipei Times: "CROSS STRAIT TALKS: Police officer injured in Taichung protests."

* For comparison, here's a CNA round-up (in the Taiwan News) of other articles on the incident: "News digest of local media - Clashes."

* Here's a YouTube video of some of the hooligans stationed around the Chenlan Temple: "大甲鎮瀾宮前成自治區，廟方派出紅衣人保護警方維安現場-民視新聞" (Translation: The front of Dajia Township's Chenlan Temple becomes an "autonomous region," people in red [and pink] shirts dispatched to protect police, "preserve order" at the scene - FTV News). Note that in addition to the "uniforms," some of these guys are wearing earpieces, indicating that they're organized and awaiting orders from someone, much like soldiers on a battlefield.

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Squiggly lines of BS detection: Taiwan, 台灣, media, 媒體, memes, 大腦模仿病毒, Reuters, 路透社, Ralph Jennings, 唐甯思, Yen Ching-piao, 顏清標, violence, 暴力

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: media, memes, Ralph Jennings, Reuters, Taiwan, violence, Yen Ching-piao, 台灣, 唐甯思, 大腦模仿病毒, 媒體, 暴力, 路透社, 顏清標

They distort, you decide

Here are three screenshots which tell a story:


4:03 AM, August 17, 2009, Taiwan time
The most-viewed article at that time was listed as "Taiwan leader takes typhoon blame"
(and it's good to see that the readers are paying attention to Taiwan!),
but clicking that link took me to what you'll see in the next image.
(Click image to enlarge)

4:04 AM, August 17, 2009, Taiwan time
"Taiwan's president takes blame for typhoon response,"
but somebody behind the scenes is about to take the blame for the headline.
(Not that the link above appeared on the same page with this headline.)
Take a look below to see what happened next.
(Click image to enlarge)

8:30 AM, August 17, 2009, Taiwan time
Now it says "Taiwan's leader takes blame for typhoon response,"
and the first sentence of the article also uses the word "leader."
(Click image to enlarge)
Note the URL of the page calls Ma "president," but the most recent version changes "president" (in both the headline and the body of the article) to "leader," only using the word "president" in a direct quote from Ma farther down the page:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/16/taiwan.president.typhoon/index.html

Gee, how do you think that happened?

FURTHER READING:
* Luby in Wonderland: "CNN: Ma takes full responsibility, will punish subordinates, but will not resign"

* A post I wrote November 2006 shows how Ma "takes responsibility."

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Square pegs: Taiwan, 台灣, media, 媒體, CNN, 有線電視新聞網

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: CNN, media, Taiwan, 台灣, 媒體, 有線電視新聞網

Ethnically-divisive paper lacks mirrors, points fingers at others

An editorial in the Thursday, May 21, 2009 edition of the logically-, geographically-, and factually-challenged China Post demonstrates once again how fucked up they are.


This is the only way to understand what is written within
(Click to enlarge)
Here are some excerpts from that editorial [the blockquoted sections below] followed by my commentary [the non-blockquoted sections]:

[p. 1]

[...]

The Blue Camp's Chinese nationalism may be bad nationalism. But the Green Camp's "Taiwanese" nationalism is a far worse nationalism.

Chinese nationalism, to its credit, was purely defensive in nature. It was a defensive reaction to western and Japanese colonialism and imperialism, specifically Britain's two Opium Wars, and Japan's relentless attempts at territorial conquest.

The editors have already set up a double standard regarding nationalism: "Chinese may be bad. No! Chinese, good! Taiwanese, bad. Very bad!"

They also ignore the "colonialism and imperialism" exhibited by Chinese towards Taiwan. But saying so would justify the Taiwanese fighting back against the behavior of the colonialists on their own side.

Let's continue on the next page of idiocy.

[p. 2]

Chinese nationalism, to its credit, is also highly inclusive. Minorities, providing they do not agitate for political secession, have been treated comparatively well by both the KMT and CCP governments.

[...]

Sure, Chinese nationalism is "inclusive" -- it tells us that everyone is "Chinese" (as long as they want to make you part of their empire) and that all others are "barbarians."

But the China Post can't explain why the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) forbade speaking Taiwanese in school and on TV or why they're doing it again. In fact, the editors won't even mention it. That would knock their own argument down, and it might remind people that there are indeed Taiwanese in Taiwan.

Furthermore, you'd better not disagree with these "superior" Chinese (on either side of the Strait), or they'll kill a whole bunch of you like they've done in Taiwan and Tibet.

Let's get back to the total nonsense.

In real world practice, Green Camp "Taiwanese" nationalists are seemingly eager tools of U.S. hegemony and Japanese colonialism.

Is the U.S. trying to absorb Taiwan? Didn't the Japanese sign treaties regarding Taiwan, and aren't they sticking to those treaties? Also, isn't Japan friendly to Taiwan now?

And the repeated use of the word "colonialism" shows just how un-self-aware the editors of the China Post are.

Back to the logically-challenged editorial.

Paradoxically, the Green Camp's "Taiwanese" nationalism is also among the more virulent forms of nationalism, one that places an inordinate stress on ethnic identity.

This is exactly the opposite of the reality. The greens place no emphasis on "ethnic" identity. Anybody who identifies with Taiwan or the cause of protecting Taiwan are welcomed by our side. Have the editors ever heard of these people: Ruan Ming (阮名), Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), Robin Dale (羅賓漢), Lynn Miles (梅心怡), Linda Arrigo (艾琳達), the 26 foreign scholars and writers who wrote to President Ma, etc.? I bet they have. Do they want you just to forget? Supporting Taiwan has nothing to do with "ethnic" identity -- it's entirely political. It's about identifying with Taiwan as one's home, whether you were born here or are an immigrant like myself.

The most ethnically divisive people you can find -- for example, Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英) and Hsing-yun (星雲) -- are KMT officials and supporters.

And if the word "virulent" reminds you of the way Nazis portrayed the Jews, get ready for the nastiest, most ironic bit in the piece.

Joyce Huang, a prominent Taiwanese liberal reformer, is an outspoken critic of KMT authoritarianism and "Taiwanese" nationalism. Huang accurately characterized the Green Camp's "Taiwanese" nationalism as "Hoklo Chauvinism" or "Hoklo Fascism." She compared "Taiwanese" nationalism to German Nazism.

The problems within that paragraph are myriad -- not being limited only to the mendacious Nazi comparisons and to the scare quotes on the word "Taiwanese," once again pretending that Taiwanese don't exist.

The China Post is totally obfuscating Joyce Huang's (黃智賢, Huang Chi-hsien) actual political position.

Joyce Huang is outspoken all right, but in sharp contrast to her estranged brother, DPP legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃智賢), Joyce Huang cannot be described by a truthful person as "neither blue nor green" (不分藍綠).

She is deep-blue, and you might find her being "outspoken" on the 100% Chinese-funded TVBS (AKA BS-TV) smear-fest "2100全民開講" ("Let's All Talk Bullshit"?).

A blast from the not-so-distant past
You might remember people like Emile Sheng (盛治仁), whom the media painted as a "neutral observer" during the administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Sheng somehow ended up with a job as chairman of the Taipei Deaflympics Organizing Committee under the administration of Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

By painting Huang as "neither blue nor green" ("Look! An outspoken critic of KMT authoritarianism!"), the China Post is doing the same thing the media did with Sheng.

But don't you believe their bullshit for even one minute! Open your eyes and be clear about these "tools of authoritarianism."


"Ma Ying-jeou course on political terminology"
An editorial cartoon from the April 16, 2004 edition of the Taipei Times
FURTHER READING:
* See how the kids' paper, the Mandarin Daily News (國語日報) is inflating Ma Ying-jeou's image for the kiddies the way students of my wife's generation were forcefed bullshit about the murderous dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) being the "greatest man in the world." The article there is titled 「陽光健康的台灣總統馬英九」 ("Sunny [as in 'positive'], healthy Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou"). Interesting how they don't let the kids know that when Ma says one thing, it's a pretty good idea to doubt his sincerity. Here's a semi-English-y Google translation for those who need it.

* Here's a blog post which reprints the original article (including pictures) and another English-y Google translation.

* Another mirror of the article can be found at NewsRumble -- just in case.

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Hammers and nails: Taiwan, 台灣, media, 媒體, China Post, 英文中國郵報, Joyce Huang, 黃智賢, Huang Chi-hsien, ethnic divisiveness, 族群分裂

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: China Post, ethnic divisiveness, Huang Chi-hsien, Joyce Huang, media, Taiwan, 台灣, 媒體, 族群分裂, 英文中國郵報, 黃智賢

An amazing success -- except for the two guys that a cop put in the hospital and the black-shirted instigator in Kaohsiung who provoked a reaction (before crying like a stuck pig when he got what was coming to him and returning to Taipei today for more of the same)

I was there at the Taipei protest, but since I'm getting to this a bit late, I'll mostly just provide some relevant links.

But first, here's a photo I took on Ketagalan Boulevard (凱達格蘭大道):


The crowd on Ketagalan Blvd. #4
(Click to enlarge)
* The DPP says that 600,000 attended in Taipei (along with another 200,000 in Kaohsiung), but Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) puts the Taipei number at a mere 40,000. Doesn't he wish?!

* I shot some video at the 517 protest. This one shows a small portion of the crowd. The question isn't "Is Hau Lung-bin lying?" It's "How big of a liar is he?" Read the full desciption on its YouTube page for more info.


1:04 YouTube video: "517 raw video - Walking past NTU Hospital"

* An Associated Press piece by Annie Huang (unfortunately repeated without editing by the Taiwan News and expectedly by the China Post) not only refers to "Tens of thousands" of attendees, it inexplicably repeats the big, fucking lie that "China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949." Can you say "zombie lies"?

* J. Michael Cole does an even more thorough takedown of the mess of lies within that piece.

* The regularly-mendacious China Post still diminishes the number of attendees, saying there were "200,000."

* David Reid blogs that DPP reclaims the streets, reminding readers about the DPP's new English-language blog which regular readers of this blog or David's should go see.

* Speaking of which, here's the DPP International photostream on Flickr and their English translation of chairperson Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) speech at the rally.

* David Reid's photos from the 517 protest as well as from the DPP's 24-hour sit-in also appear on the "citizen-journalism website and photo agency" Demotix.

* Michael Turton was in Taipei, too, and he calls the protest a "roaring success." He includes lots of photos, as you'd expect. But I disagree with one thing he says. I saw plenty of young people at this protest.

* A post on SocialForce.net (媒抗) leads to live streams of FTV and SET news coverage -- very useful for those outside of Taiwan (or even just without cable TV) who want to keep up with things.

* My Flickr photostream of images from the 517 protest begins behind the link.

* Luby Liao sent a link to a photo gallery.

* More images from the 517 嗆馬大遊行 and DPP and Free Taiwan Flickr groups. Some of my own photos are in those three groups.

* The Taiwanese Identity blog has a short post with photos on a specific theme: The Clarity of Taiwan's Identity.

* A 21-year-old police officer, said to have been driving 80 to 90 km/hr. in an area with many protesters, smashed his police car into two men in their sixties, injuring one severely and smashing half of the windshield on his vehicle. Last I heard was that he may have to have a foot or leg amputated and then cranial surgery.

* Talking Show (大話新聞), whose weekend time slots had been canceled since December 2008, had a special broadcast Sunday night covering topics such as the media's lies and the "accident" involving the police car.

That's all I've got.

---

Addends: Taiwan, 台灣, protest, 抗議, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, media, 媒體, China Post, 英文中國郵報, Taiwan News, 台灣英文新聞, YouTube, photos, 相片

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: China Post, Ma Ying-jeou, media, photos, protest, Taiwan, Taiwan News, YouTube, 台灣, 台灣英文新聞, 媒體, 抗議, 相片, 英文中國郵報, 馬英九

Did anybody else notice?

At approximately 5:00 PM today on FTV (民視新聞), a reporter who was telling viewers about what former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was eating today (Is this "news"?) was wearing a cap bearing the logo for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Can you say "WTF?!"?

What came to mind right away was the September 16, 2006 incident in which an FTV cameraman got into a scuffle with the crowd at a rally to support Chen Shui-bian. The reason for the scuffle was that the cameraman had a "Depose [Chen]" (倒扁) sticker on his camera and was wearing a red jacket (the color worn by the anti-Chen demonstrators [紅衫軍] led by Shih Ming-teh [施明德]).

Are you paying attention?

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Flashing lights: Taiwan, 台灣, media, 媒體, FTV, 民視新聞, redshirts, 紅衫軍

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: FTV, media, redshirts, Taiwan, 台灣, 媒體, 民視新聞, 紅衫軍

Will the mainstream media do the right thing?

Coordinator: Taiwan Sovereignty Watch/ 台灣主權觀測站

Contact Info: Billy Pan 0968-718673、Michael 0935-156396、Luna 0917-228-367

Contact Email: ocotTaiwan@gmail.com

Who we are?

There are lots of bloggers and volunteers in Taiwan and overseas concern current Taiwan Police Violates Civil Rights When Maintaining Order during the Meeting of Taiwan's and China's Top Negotiators.

Due to most appeals and protests are blocked and distorted seriously on the mainstream media in Taiwan. Therefore, we set up the website and blogs delivering our press release, reports and so on. We continue watching these matters and offering different materials in other languages.

Please further visit our website or contact us directly. We really need you to help us to speak our voice out at this key moment. If you have any further questions, please be free to leave your messages on our website or reply to us. We will try to reply to you soon. Thank you so much.

Official website: That will be free to use or cite the documents or photos.

http://ocot.tw/ (一中一台 / One China, One Taiwan)

http://www.ocot.tw/blog/ (Taiwan Sovereignty Watch)

**More photos or news in Chinese，you may visit Billy Pan's Blog: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/billypan101/14367606


【Press Release】(English Version)

Taiwan Police Violates Civil Rights When Maintaining Order During the Meeting of Taiwan's and China's Top Negotiators

2008.11.5
Chen Yunlin, the chief of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, landed at Taiwan on November 3rd. He signed agreements on passenger-cargo flight, maritime shipping, mail service and food safety related issues with Chiang Pin-kung, the chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation. These agreements made Taiwan and China enter an age of three direct links. He would also meet President Ma Ying-Jeou of Taiwan.

For a long time, China has repressed any opportunities of Taiwan to participate international events. China neither recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign nation nor gives up its plan of making martial intrusion into Taiwan. Many Taiwanese people, including Taiwan's biggest opposition party, Democratic Progressive Party, were worried that Kuomintang government would not be able to defend for Taiwan's sovereignty during the negotiation. They also questioned that this meeting was not put under public examination. They are holding protests throughout Chen Yunlin's visit to Taiwan, expressing their claims, such as "One Taiwan, One China". Those people against China's forceful repression of Tibet's independence activities also joined the protests, holding "Free Tibet" slogan.



For Chen Yunlin's Taiwan visit, the Kuomingtang administration has specifically deployed some seven thousand policemen and special agents to cordon off the venues where Chen would appear in an attempt to prevent the public from raising protests. Measures employed by the police to guard Chen these days have, however, gone beyond the bounds of the law and the Constitution and seriously infringed on citizens' personal liberties and civil rights. Following are some instances:

1. The policy confiscated and damaged personal belongings of flags and balloons held by people at protest venues.

2. In the evening of November 2, four Taichung City Councilors, Chen Shu-hua (陳淑華), Chiu Su-chen (邱素貞), Chi Li-yu (紀麗玉) and Lai Chia-wei (賴佳微), checked in the Grand Hotel where Chen Yulin would stay during his visit. The next morning, they displayed protest banners from the balcony of their room. Within one minute, special agents broke in the balcony and entered their room, without their consent, to remove banners and restrain their actions.

3. Three bloggers with national flags of Taiwan and Tibet in hand were forcefully taken away by the police when walking southbound along Chung Shan North Rd and passing by the Taiwan Cement Building, where Chen Yunlin visited Cecilia Koo Yen, widow of the former chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation. The arrest caused the dislocation of fingers of one of the bloggers, but police refused to send her for medical treatment until she provided personal information.

4. Chen Yu-ching (陳育青), a photographer who visited friends near the Grand Hotel, was arrested and sent to the police station for interrogation for shooting the video of the banned area with hand-held camera.

5. Hung Chien-yi (洪建益), a Taipei councilman, entered the Ambassador Hotel, where Chen Yunlin's dinner reception was held, in the afternoon. When leaving by himself in the evening, he was dragged away on the ground for tens of yards by several police officers at the front gate of the hotel. He did not shout derogatory slogans or carry any dangerous items but only wore a T-shirt with the mark of "No Conspiracy with China" on it.

6. On November 4th, while Chen Yunlin was at the dinner reception hosted by KMT leaders at the Ambassador Hotel, a nearby record store was playing some Taiwanese song out loud. The police thought the song would stir up the feelings of the protesters on the scene, so they, in uniform or plainclothes, led by Beitou Police District Chief Lee Han Ching, broke into that record store, asked the store owner to stop the music, and shut the door.

7. On November 3rd, the Association of Taiwan Journalist issued that Cheng Chieh-wen (鄭傑文), a photojournalist from the Central News Agency, was dragged by the security police for 10 meters while he was doing his job at the Grand Hotel, and that an inappropriate press coverage area plan had caused quarrels between the press and the officials. ATJ declared that press freedom was under severe attack in Taiwan. Meanwhile, the government imposed such strict control over press coverage for this event that several reporters from Hong Kong said they failed to get press passes and had limited rights for coverage.

Protests are continuing, so are actions that invade human rights, actions that do harm to freedom of speech and personal liberty. These actions not only violated both Taiwan's criminal and civil laws but also contradicted the Constitution that should have protected the rights of people. We will be watching these events, and we want to raise our severe objections to the police in Taiwan.



(新聞稿，中文版)

台灣警方在江陳會談期間的維安工作，侵犯正常公民權利的行使

2008.11.5
中國海協會會長陳雲林在11月3日抵達台灣，預計和台灣海基會會長江丙坤簽署包括海運、空運、郵政、食品安全等事務性協議，並和馬英九總統進行會面，正式邁向大三通的時代。

由於中國政府長期打壓台灣在國際上的活動空間，不願承認台灣是一個主權獨立的國家，也不放棄武力犯台，包括台灣主要反對黨—民進黨在內的許多台灣民眾，憂心國民黨政府在無法在協商過程之中堅守台灣主權，並且質疑這次會談的透明度，他們預備在陳雲林的台灣行程之中，沿途抗議，表達「台灣中國，一邊一國」等訴求。抗議民眾也包括不滿中國鎮壓圖博的圖博人士，他們提出「Free Tibet」的口號。

國民黨政府為了這次的會談，部屬了七千名的警察與特勤人員，在每一個會談的場合，以優勢警力圍起了封鎖線，試圖阻止民眾的抗議。然而，警方在這幾天所執行的維安工作，卻有執法過當的嫌疑，嚴重侵犯人身自由與妨礙公民權利的行使。以下舉例部份侵權事件：

1、在抗議場合，警方強制沒收、損毀台灣民眾手持的旗幟、空飄氣球等私人物品。

2、台中市議員陳淑華等四人，11月2日晚間入住陳雲林下榻的圓山飯店。11月3日上午，陳雲林車隊抵達圓山飯店之前，這四名議員在自己的房間陽台，掛起大型抗議布條。在一分鐘之內，未經陳淑華等人的同意，特勤人員隨即闖入陽台，進入陳淑華等人的房間，強行拆除布條，並壓制陳淑華等人的行動。

3、三名部落客沿著中山北路向南行經台泥大樓（陳雲林拜會辜嚴倬雲地點），因為批戴台灣國旗與圖博雪山獅子旗，被警方強行帶離，並造成一名部落客手指脫臼。警方甚至要求先留下資料，才願意送其至醫院。

4、影像工作者陳育青因為前往圓山飯店附近探訪友人，途中使用小型手持攝影機拍攝圓山飯店的現場封鎖情形，隨即被警方強制押進警察，帶至警局訊問。

5、台北市議員洪建益下午進入國賓飯店（陳雲林晚宴地點），於晚間獨自一人從飯店大門離開，並無任何呼喊口號的舉止，也沒有攜帶任何不當物品，只因為露出外套底下「勿通匪類」的t-shirt，隨即在飯店門口被多名警員強行托行數十公尺離開現場。

6、11月4日晚間，當陳雲林和國民黨要員於國賓飯店飯店進行晚宴時，附近的一家唱片行播放台灣歌謠，警方認為該歌謠鼓吹煽動現場抗議民眾，北投分局長李漢卿帶領數名制服及便衣員警，強行進入該唱片行，要求店家關閉音樂，隨後並強制拉下店家的鐵門。

7、台灣記者協會發出於11月3日發出聲明，2日中央社攝影記者鄭傑文於圓山飯店採訪遭到維安人員推拉約十公尺，3日又因採訪動線規劃不妥，造成媒體與官員的口角衝突。台灣新聞記者協會表示，這些行為嚴重侵害採訪自由。同時，此次相關單位嚴格管制媒體採訪，多名來自香港的記者表示無法取得採訪證，採訪權利受到限制。

抗議事件目前持續發生中，類似侵權行為也沒有減緩的跡象，這些行為均傷害了言論與人身自由，甚至違反我國刑事與民事法條，且牴觸憲法對於人民正常權利的保障。我們會持續關注這些事件，並對台灣的警政單位表達嚴正的抗議。



Too many police in Taipei
(Click to enlarge)

The pain!
(Click to enlarge)

This woman's finger was dislocated by police because of the flag she was holding
(Click to enlarge)

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Pressure valves: Taiwan, 台灣, martial law, 戒嚴, police state, 警察國家, violence, 暴力, Chen Yunlin, 陳雲林, media, 媒體

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: Chen Yunlin, martial law, media, police state, Taiwan, violence, 台灣, 媒體, 戒嚴, 暴力, 警察國家, 陳雲林

President, mofo!

The BBC still refuses to call Taiwan's elected leaders "president" in their headlines:

Huge rally against Taiwan leader

I was there, and I agree that it was huge:


See a bird's-eye view of this location in this article
(Click thumbnail to enlarge)
But the caption beneath the BBC video on that page contains this serious underestimation:

Thousands of opposition supporters have taken to the streets [...]

"Thousands," as in "somewhere between 2,000 and 20,000? The speakers onstage at the event said that there were 300,000 people there, which -- even if it was 50% too high -- would mean the BBC is off by a factor of 100! The BBC should have said "hundreds of thousands."

Here she comes again
Hack BBC reporter Caroline Gluck gets the byline on an article with the same president-less headline in which she repeats the numerical disparagement and writes the following rubbish:

The protesters said he [Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)] was moving too quickly to improve ties with Beijing.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, although they have been governed separately since 1949.

[...]

The president's office did not comment on the rally, but officials from the governing Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) said the public should not blame the current administration for the island's economic woes but the previous one, which held office for eight years.

They said the public should be protesting against Taiwan's former President, Chen Shui-bian, and his family, who are being investigated over fresh allegations of money laundering involving millions of dollars.

Who needs facts or evidence when you have Caroline Gluck? Let's dump that rubbish out in the sunshine where it can be examined more easily, shall we?

What dictionary are you using?
The protest wasn't about "improv[ing] ties" with Beijing. The protesters know far better than Gluck that the kind of "ties" that Ma wants to have with Beijing go far beyond economic ones and will only result in Taiwan's absorption by an authoritarian government that has no right to rule Taiwan.


These guys know clearly what Gluck fails to tell readers
(Click to enlarge)
There's also a big piece that Gluck left out about the Ma government brushing off China's multiple uses of the offensive and absolutely incorrect name "China, Taiwan" (中國台灣).

The part about "1949"? Again?! Fuck! Before 1949, Taiwan was ruled by Japan, so that sentence is a purely China-centric lie.

Next, the full name of the "Nationalist Party" -- as Gluck surely knows -- is the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Given the context, it has more relevance than usual, but Gluck dutifully leaves the first nasty word off.

Finally, the "current administration" is being blamed for driving away foreign investment, relying almost exclusively on China to boost Taiwan's economy, and for failing to live up to the campaign promise of "633" (6% economic growth/year [now reduced to an unreachable 4.8% -- even though his own government estimates maybe reaching 4.3%], US$30,000 per capita income [ain't gonna happen], and less than 3% unemployment by 2012), the campaign claim of "We are ready" (我們準備好了！), and the campaign promise of "If Ma gets elected, things will be better right away" (「馬上就會好」). Plus, the "allegations" are being made by known liars, the "invesigat[ion]" is incomplete, and the evidence is absent without leave. Also, the economy was quite healthy during Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) administration, with a 6.06% growth rate occurring in the first quarter of 2008 during the last part of Chen's term.

By the way, the "island" that Gluck is referring to is Taiwan, and while most people here call it a "country," Gluck repeats that worn-out meme (the "mainland-island" dichotomy) which falsely implies that it is part of China.

So, just about everthing that Caroline Gluck said echoes KMT talking points, and that is the kind of rubbish off of which she makes her living.

For the benefit of your own lying eyes
Here are some more photos I shot on location:

Where was Gluck during this event -- under President Mr. Ma's desk?
"Thousands" of people passed by in just the 90 seconds following that shot,
and after that, they kept on comin'!
(Click to enlarge)

If she wasn't under Ma's desk, she would certainly have seen things like this...
(Click to enlarge)

... and even though she could have talked to "thousands" of people like this,
there isn't a single quote in her article from any of the rally's participants.
I don't know if Gluck can read the sign, but it basically says the same thing as the next one below.
(Click to enlarge)

Sunshine Laws Now!
The DPP has never had the legislative majority required to enact such laws.
Ma's party, on the other hand, has had over half a century to do so.
WTF are they waiting for?
(Click to enlarge)

The pan-blue media helped Ma during his presidential campaign to push the lie that the TAIEX would go up to 10,000 or even 20,000 points.
Instead, this is what happened starting the very day Ma took office.
(Click to enlarge)

Stop selling Taiwan out!
(Click to enlarge)

Feel the passion in their expressions.
They are from Taiwan!
(Click to enlarge)
Don't you forget about us
Here are some of my and Michael Turton's previous criticisms of the BBC's anti-Taiwan coverage:

1) BBC gets Taiwan all wrong
2) BBC angers all who care about Taiwan
3) BBC still not getting Taiwan right
4) BBC continues Taiwan deception
5) BBC strikes again
6) BBC Taiwan Coverage: Pathetically Biased
7) BBC cooks up more nonsense about Chen recall bid
8) Who will observe the Taiwan observers?
9) BBC has news about Taiwan totally backwards
10) BBC's Gluck dumps on changes to Taiwan's history books
11) Another distortion piece from the BBC
12) Sorry-ass BBC misreports Taiwan again

And then there were 13.

Even more reading
* Saturday, August 30, 2008, International Herald Tribune: Thousands rally against Taiwan's China policy

Tens of thousands of Taiwanese marched [...]

[...]

[...] Police said about 40,000 people participated in the rally.

Is it "Thousands" or "Tens of thousands"?!

* Saturday, August 30, 2008, Agence France-Presse (AFP): Tens of thousands rally against Taiwan's Ma

TAIPEI (AFP) — Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Taipei Saturday [...]

[...]

Peter Wang, the rally organiser, told AFP Ma's stance on China meant "Taiwan's sovereignty is being sacrificed."

At least they're consistent with the low numbers between the headline and the body text. OTOH, Peter Wang was merely one of the organizers.

* Sunday, August 31, 2008, Taipei Times: Rally targets Ma on 100th day in office:

Tens of thousands of protesters began their walk [...]

[...]

The Taiwan Society, which organized the rally, estimated that 300,000 people attended, while Taipei police said they would not provide an estimate.

Wait a minute! IHT said police gave them an estimate! And come on -- somebody has got to be able to do better than that "Tens of thousands" crap!

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M&M's for the mind: Taiwan, 台灣, media, 媒體, memes, 大腦模仿病毒, BBC, 英國廣播公司, Caroline Gluck, 凱若琳葛拉克, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, protest, 抗議

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: BBC, Caroline Gluck, media, memes, Taiwan, 凱若琳葛拉克, 台灣, 大腦模仿病毒, 媒體, 英國廣播公司

Media deception in Taiwan

Did anybody else also notice how the media was trying to deceive readers and viewers with their "speculation" that former president Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) would not return from the US to face questioning by prosecutors?

Well, they're back.

Here's some truth-revealing video from Monday night's Talking Show (大話新聞):

5:07 YouTube video: "Return of the son of Chen Shui-bian"
(Click "More info" on the YouTube page for an English-language summary of the video)
The basic facts
Did they "run away," like the Apple Daily said they did? No. Was Chen Chih-chung "not issued a student ID card," as a University of Virginia spokesperson claimed? No. Did Chen Chih-chung have a US green card, like Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) insinuated he "might"? No.

Apologies from the media and people like Chiu won't be enough. They did that shit on purpose.

Don't fall for these kinds of tricks, and hope that you never have to face that kind of "justice."

UPDATE: The University of Virginia has admitted their "error" and apologized, though the reasoning is still suspicious. The person who gave the media the incorrect information (Jeffery G. Hanna, deduced from the Chinese transliterations of 漢納 and 韓納, Hanna's media relations position, and these two photos) left his job last Friday, and the apology was made by Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Carol S. Wood (a name that was difficult to find starting from the phonetic back-translation from the Chinese 卡蘿). Most of the articles behind the links in this update are in Chinese. The one linked under "apologized" says Chen Chih-chung told reporters that the school "hinted" to him that they had received some kind of "pressure" and told him that he "shouldn't apply for admission this year." [/UPDATE]

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News "anchors": Taiwan, 台灣, deep thoughts, 深思, Chen Chih-chung, 陳致中, Huang Jui-ching, 黃睿靚, Talking Show, 大話新聞, media, 媒體, Chiu Yi, 邱毅, YouTube

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: Chen Chih-chung, Chiu Yi, deep thoughts, Huang Jui-ching, media, Taiwan, Talking Show, YouTube, 台灣, 大話新聞, 媒體, 深思, 邱毅, 陳致中, 黃睿靚

Didn't this guy get China's memo/bribe/threat?

ESPN senior sports writer Jim Caple, writing from Beijing, turns the usual meme about Taiwan ("which China claims...") on its flat-topped head:

On the field next door, communist China was playing Taipei, the democratic capital on the Taiwan island just miles off its coast whose independence is disputed by the mainland government.

Got that? Taiwan's existing independence is the given, and it's disputed by authoritarian China.

Reporters with brains and/or a conscience, can you do any better?

Kudos to Jim Caple.

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Differential equations: Taiwan, 台灣, Taiwan Independence, 台灣獨立, Taidu, 台獨, media, 媒體, memes, 大腦模仿病毒, Jim Caple

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: Jim Caple, media, memes, Taidu, Taiwan, Taiwan Independence, 台灣, 台灣獨立, 台獨, 大腦模仿病毒, 媒體

How 'bout if we just call you "Mr. Pony"?

Over the past weekend, CNN's Anjali Rao interviewed Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on the program TalkAsia.

CNN got it halfway right and called Ma "Taiwanese president" (he's "Taiwan's" president, but he's not "Taiwanese") in the interview and in on-screen descriptions, but their web page messed up his job description supremely:


A ministerial mess-up from a "premier" news source
(Click to enlarge)
The text version of the line highlighted in the image above says [emphasis added]:

· Taiwan's premier, Ma Ying-jeou, elected by biggest margin in history

Can't make up their minds
Check out the other inaccurate description below the video on that page [emphasis added]:

CNN's Anjali Rao talks with popular new Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou about [...]

Whoa, horsie! Numbers in the 30s -- Ma's numbers in just the second month of his presidency -- were called "low approval ratings" by CNN when applied to George W. Bush in the sixth year of his term in office.

What say you, readers, about a 30-ish percent popularity rating? Hot or not?

UPDATE: That sentence about Ma being "popular" disappeared from the CNN page between the time I wrote this post and the time I published it. [/UPDATE]

UPDATE 2: As quickly as it vanished, it seems to have reappeared. Perhaps I was looking at the wrong page? Here it is in image form (from this page):

Popular?
(Click to enlarge)
[/UPDATE 2]

Watch it!
See the video of the interview (in pieces) here.

We've seen some unusual things in just this brief look. Watch carefully for more fawning by Rao and for the outright lies you'll find within -- even though there may be a glimpse of truth to be seen if you don't blink.

    
    
Some screenshots from the end of the interview
Maybe it was there for "balance"
I only caught the tail end of the program on Sunday night, but if you've been keeping up, you wouldn't be surprised to know that the program described above was followed immediately by a promo for another CNN special: Sights & Sounds of Beijing. Could it be a subtle attempt to confuse viewers about which country's president they were just watching an interview of? Y'think?

Perhaps I'll have a more detailed post on the interview content later, but I can't promise anything.

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(Im)mutable monikers: Taiwan, 台灣, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, media, 媒體, CNN, TalkAsia, Anjali Rao

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: Anjali Rao, CNN, Ma Ying-jeou, media, Taiwan, TalkAsia, 台灣, 媒體, 馬英九

... so stop saying that!

Taiwan's president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) graduated from Harvard Law School, but unlike his opponent Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and his predecessor Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Ma never passed the bar exam.

Yet a simple Google search locates multitudinous examples of people calling Ma a "lawyer." Where did this meme come from, and can it be stopped? That all depends on whether you, the reader, fall for the media's lies.


Look who's fluffing Ma Ying-jeou!
With Saturday's election results putting Ma's win at the top of Google News' English-language page, and with the lie about him being right in the first sentence of so many articles, it's more than I can silently endure.


A March 23, 2008 search of Google News for
["Ma Ying-jeou" "Harvard-educated lawyer"]
Notice the article from the Malaysia Sun there, which is already calling Ma "president" almost two months prior to his inauguration instead of "president-elect."

Furthermore, his party isn't just called "the Nationalists" or "the Nationalist Party" -- it's the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT or 中國國民黨), as the Mandarin version of their own web site and political ads will tell you:


Why doesn't most of the English-language media
use the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) full name
like the party does in Mandarin on its own web site?
A-gu (阿牛) tells us that the China Times (中國時報) is saying that "79% are happy about Ma's victory." How is that even possible when he only got 58.45% of the vote? (Yo, Raj, the key word is "happy.")

All the "fluffing" has got to stop. Come May 20, 2008, let's see if the media treats Ma the same way they did Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). I won't be holding my breath waiting for that to happen. They're already calling his wife "Big Sister Mei-ching."

Peace?
People are suggesting that things will be more peaceful with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the presidential office and with a 3/4 majority in the legislature. I'd like anybody who believes that to take a look at this collection of recent clips of the pots who would call kettles black:


0:31 YouTube video: "Is the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) better than the DPP?"


Silver linings?
Ma's willingness (so far) to use English with the international media may let more people around the world hear his moment-to-moment self-contradictions. Then again, that would require a slightly diligent media instead of one that acts as his "fluffer."
- - -
* Well, he might be considered an "abogado" in Mexico, but not too many other places.

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Legalities: Taiwan, 台灣, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, Taiwan 2008 Presidential Election, 2008年台灣總統大選, YouTube

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: 2008年台灣總統大選, Ma Ying-jeou, media, memes, Taiwan, Taiwan 2008 Presidential Election, YouTube, 台灣, 大腦模仿病毒, 媒體, 馬英九