Nat Bellocchi puts things in focus

Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Nat Bellocchi had an editorial piece titled "The myth about reducing tension" in Friday's Taipei Times. In the eye-opening piece, Bellocchi deconstructs the illusion of the "reduction of tension" between Taiwan and China.

It deserves to be read in full, so here's the whole piece [highlights mine]:

In a world filled with political tension, cutthroat economic competition and even open warfare, many people long for a reduction of tension, leading to more peace and stability among nations. As such, it was no surprise that when the newly elected Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government started its policy of rapprochement with China in the spring of 2008, the US welcomed the "reduction of tension" across the Taiwan Strait.

The question is whether there really has been a long-term "reduction of tension" and whether that means long-running disagreements might be resolved.

It is a fact that for the past two years the People's Republic of China (PRC) has been less bellicose than it was during the eight years of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration. However, that is only true because China sees "Taiwan" as moving in its direction, increasing the likelihood that in due time it will be able to force Taiwan — through economic and political means — into some kind of political unification. [Maddog note: While the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is moving in China's direction, the people of Taiwan are not.]

The present "reduction of tension" is thus artificial in nature as it is predicated on Taiwan capitulating under duress to China in the long run. That is tantamount to saying that law-abiding people giving in to mafia threats reduces tension, when in reality the underlying tension is caused by the aggressor. Now, what will happen if the Taiwanese decide — for whatever reasons — to not re-elect President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2012 and a DPP government returns to power? Such a government would want to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, but at the same time retain Taiwan's hard-won freedom, democracy and independence.

It is easy to predict that such a new policy would be labeled as "increasing tension" by the defeated KMT as well as by the PRC itself. It is thus an ironic contradiction that attempts to consolidate Taiwan's democracy and its acceptance by the international community may be seen in some quarters as "increasing tension."

For those who study Taiwan and observe it closely, there are other seeming contradictions: Shirley Kan of the Congressional Research Service in Washington mentioned three of them during a recent seminar at George Washington University: one, if you want consensus, don't call it a consensus (referring to the so-called "1992 consensus" which has been a divisive issue in Taiwan); two, if you want independence, don't say so; and three, if the US wants to reduce the threat of conflict in the Taiwan Strait, it has to sell arms to Taiwan.

Against this background, what should the US say or do? For one, it should be more careful in referring to the present trend as "reducing tension."

There can only be a true reduction of tension if China moves in the direction of accepting Taiwan for what it is — a lively democracy that wants to chart its own course and determine its own future without undue pressure from the Chinese side.

There is no evidence that China accepts or will ever accept this point. It continues its military buildup, has hardly moved on giving Taiwan international space and continues its attempts to lock Taiwan into a position of dependence through economic means.

The US thus needs to be more insistent on reducing the Chinese military threat against Taiwan and on the issue of increasing international space for Taiwan.

A good start would be for the US to fully support Taiwan's membership in international organizations as stipulated in the Taiwan Relations Act and to refrain from anachronistic statements that it only support membership in organizations "that do not require statehood."

The US also needs to do better at creating an atmosphere wherein efforts by Taiwan's government to consolidate democracy and increase its international presence are seen as enhancing long-term peace and stability in the Strait — in spite of possible objections from a still quite repressive government in Beijing.

The basic idea is that — instead of Taiwan moving in the direction of Beijing — the PRC should move in the direction of freedom and democracy. Only then can there be any substantive "reduction of tension."

Further reading:
* Full text of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA)

* September 3, 2007: Ma Ying-jeou seriously misrepresents Taiwan Relations Act

* April 12, 2009: Taiwan Relations Act at 30 (Michael Turton points out a common misconception about the US' "obligations" related to the TRA.)

---

Wiseguys: Taiwan, 台灣, Nat Bellocchi, 白樂崎, memes, 大腦模仿病毒, China, 中國, People's Republic of China, 中華人民共和國, PRC

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: China, memes, Nat Bellocchi, People's Republic of China, PRC, Taiwan, 中國, 中華人民共和國, 台灣, 大腦模仿病毒, 白樂崎

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.

---

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

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!

---

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

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.

---

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

... 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.

---

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

Simpler than the back of a cereal box

Robert Maguire (AKA The Only Redhead in Taiwan), blogging on Friday ostensibly about chemical pollution originating in China, reacted to some "journalistic" pollution and hit upon two truisms about Taiwan which the English-language media rarely comes even close to getting right.

He begins with a quote from a Reuters article bearing a Paul Eckert byline before smashing it to bits with a retort that even a rock could understand:

Taiwan has been divided from mainland China since 1949, when Nationalist forces fled to the island and Mao Zedong's Communists took power in Beijing.

China says the island is a breakaway province that must accept reunification and makes Taiwan's acceptance of Beijing's "one China" policy a condition for official talks.

Reunification? For once, I would like to read an article that says, "China says the island is a breakaway province, but the PRC flag has never flown over the island." I bet we would start seeing a significant change in the way people view Taiwan if these two little paragraphs that are in nearly every article about Taiwan were more accurate. Making clear that, yes, China does claim sovereignty over Taiwan, but there's no talk of "reunification" -- only unification -- seeing as the PRC never controlled (to my knowledge) any part of Taiwan. Also, Nationalist forces fleeing to Taiwan does not divide Taiwan from "the Mainland," seeing as there were already people on Taiwan before these outside forces came to Taiwan.

Those two bits are so good, let's look at them again in isolation:

* China says the island is a breakaway province, but the PRC flag has never flown over the island.


* Nationalist forces fleeing to Taiwan does not divide Taiwan from "the Mainland," seeing as there were already people on Taiwan before these outside forces came to Taiwan.

Maguire has done the work. All that these so-called "lazy journalists" would have to do is copy and paste the correct information -- if it's actually laziness we're talking about.

I won't hold my breath, but I'd be more than happy for them to prove me wrong.

---

Various shades: Taiwan, 台灣, China, 中國, media, 媒體, memes, 大腦模仿病毒, Reuters, 路透社

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: China, media, memes, Reuters, Taiwan, 中國, 台灣, 大腦模仿病毒, 媒體, 路透社

Down with martial law

Today is the 20th anniversary of the lifting of martial law in Taiwan. That 38-year-long era was like a knife plunged into the hearts of the Taiwanese. And current members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have the nerve to call the removal of this knife a "gift to the Taiwanese."

WTF? That's almost like saying that their own raping of Taiwan prevented China from doing so. Oh, wait...

Today's Taipei Times brings us a bunch of good info. Here are the links along with some samples:

* A brief history of the martial law era

1980

Kaohsiung Incident leader Lin I-hsiung's mother and his twin daughters were brutally murdered on Feb. 28, while the elder daughter was seriously injured. The identity of the murderer remains unknown. [Maddog: Unknown to anyone outside of the KMT (whose secret police had the house under 24-hour surveillance), that is.]

1981

Carnegie University professor and supporter of Taiwan's democracy movement Chen Wen-cheng (陳文成) was found dead a day after he returned to Taiwan for a visit and was taken from his residence by agents from the Taiwan Garrison Command, a secret police and state security body.

1984

Chiang Nan (江南), a Taiwanese author writing a biography on Chiang Ching-kuo, was killed on Oct. 16 at his house in San Francisco by a Taiwanese gangster commissioned by the Military Intelligence Bureau. Chiang Ching-kuo started the second term of his presidency.

* Taiwanese society under martial law remembered

While celebrating the anniversary of the lifting of martial law in 1987, it is easy to forget what life was like at a time when many aspects of society -- including books, music and TV and radio programs -- were heavily censored and under the tight control of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.

Dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) declared martial law on May 19, 1949, after his KMT troops lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) Communist Party and withdrew to Taiwan.

Martial law was not lifted until July 15, 1987.

[...]

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has attributed the lifting of martial law to the social forces that came into effect following the Kaohsiung Incident, with the immediate cause being the founding of the DPP.

The December 1979 Kaohsiung Incident occurred when the KMT authorities broke up an anti-government rally organized by Formosa magazine.

Ten days after the DPP was founded, then president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) announced he would lift martial law and allow the formation of opposition parties.

* Chen, DPP re-enact martial law rally

"We can forgive a 'caretaker' who harmed our people, raped our daughters and stole our property, but we can never allow him to be the caretaker again," he [DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷)] said. "It is not a matter of right and wrong. It is a matter of defending the character of Taiwanese people."

* Nation vulnerable to 'three wars' plan: panel

The "three wars" strategy refers to Beijing's plan to threaten Taiwanese psychologically, block Taiwan's participation in international organizations and "brainwash" Taiwan and its allies through "united front" (統戰) propaganda aimed at extending its influence in Taiwan.

prevention

"The end goal of the Chinese government's 'three wars' is to make Taiwanese believe that Taiwan is part of China," said Chen Lung-chu (陳隆志), president of the Taiwan New Century Foundation think tank, which hosted the forum.

"Strengthening Taiwanese people's sense of national identification is the best defense against the threats post by China's 'three wars,'" Chen said.

Despite all the informative articles above, the same edition of the same paper sows seeds of fear, uncertainty, and doubt when they should be promoting bravery, dedication, and clarity instead. There's a really bad editorial today (Could Antonio Chiang [江春男, AKA 司馬文武] be the "concern troll" writing this garbage?) equating two things which are actually quite different:

* Editorial: Two fumbling political parties

With the public spotlight on the end of the martial law era, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) finds itself in an awkward position, being the sole political party responsible for subjecting Taiwan to 38 years of martial law that brought the violence of the White Terror and other tragedies.

The KMT's quandry [sic] lies partly in the fact that the victims of the dictatorship are still around to recount their stories. This is exacerbated by the fact that many of the party's heavyweights today also played important party roles during the latter part of the martial law era. They were part of and upheld an oppressive system. They were silent on the issue of oppression then, but present themselves as champions of democracy now.

[...]

But the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) may not be in a position to boast either. Although it deserves praise for the actions of its members at crucial points in the past -- the Kaohsiung Incident and the struggle for democracy, for example -- the DPP should not, twenty years after martial law has ended, still be relying on Taiwan's collective memory of dark and painful days to win votes.

The DPP should be concerned that it's [sic] biggest contribution continues to be achievements from two decades ago. During the seven years of its administration, the DPP has made little progress in switching from an opposition party mentality to that of a governing party. Unfortunately, the DPP has far fewer laurels to show for its time in the presidential office than it gathered on the road to democracy.

I guess the writer of that piece forgot that the KMT controls a big chunk of the legislature to this very day. There's nothing at all disingenuous or unseemly about the DPP's use of the topic to gain the votes it needs in order to get things done. The editorial's comparison about "laurels" earned by the DPP now versus the leaps made 20 years ago reminds me of the inaccurate comparison made between the steady progress of Taiwan's well-developed economy and China's burgeoning economy. The Frank Hsieh quote from above bears repeating: "We can forgive a 'caretaker' who harmed our people, raped our daughters and stole our property, but we can never allow him to be the caretaker again."

Fellow Taiwan Matters blogger Michael Turton was up early on this Sunday morning publishing some goodies of his own over at The View from Taiwan -- including something which may further elucidate my comment about the economy just above:

* Taiwan's Economy: What's Going On?

Taiwan's "problems" are the problems of any advanced economy, complicated by the political threats from China, and perceived through the strong cultural belief here that life is a zero-sum game and if you're not at the top of the heap, you must be at the bottom. Most nations would take joy in Taiwan's 4% annual growth rate and strong electronics sector. Instead, we have angst. Some of it is justified, given the decline in purchasing power faced by the middle and working classes, but it is also true that the public in Taiwan could stand a little education in the problems of growth when your economy is already quite wealthy.

* Revolting Story of EU Kow-tow to China

So what is Beijing up to? They know from their pals in the KMT that the UN referendum is an election year ploy that will have no real effect on anything. So this isn't about "Taiwan independence" really. It's about stopping or defusing an election year ploy, on behalf of its allies, the KMT. It is also part of its long-term policy of making Chen Shui-bian look like a "radical."

A Maddog or a stray dog?
"And where have you been for the past couple of months, Maddog?" you may ask. Some of that time has been taken up tracking some of the anti-Taiwan memes in the Western media which fly in the face of reality. Here are the pages I've posted so far:

* Memes: Taiwan provoke China
* Memes: Taiwan "renegade province"
* Memes: [Taiwan and China] "split in 1949"

Due to the sheer volume of these memes, it's difficult for me to keep those pages completely up-to-date, but I'll do my best. Referring to them from time to time should be a real eye-opener, and I hope you will pass the information on to others in order to counter the effect of the memes.

During my time away from this blog, I've been active in other prominent places. At Jerome Keating's request, I did some graphics to accompany his piece called The KMT and Their Flag: Is Puyi Power Better than None? Fellow Taiwan Matters bloggers Michael Turton and Feiren joined me in smacking down Beijing correspondent Richard Spencer of Telegraph.co.uk for publishing a big, stinking pile of lies about Taiwan. Last weekend, I wrote to the people at LiveEarth.org to demand that they change their listing of Taiwan on their pledge page as being a "Province Of China." (Some of you should write to them, too.) And I have been going over lots of declassified documents from the CIA's archives.

I hope all you readers have been active, too, even if it's behind the scenes.

---

Bullet points: Taiwan, 台灣, Republic of China, 中華民國, ROC, Chiang Kai-shek, 蔣介石, martial law, 戒嚴, democracy, 民主, memes, 大腦模仿病毒

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: Chiang Kai-shek, democracy, martial law, memes, Republic of China, ROC, Taiwan, 中華民國, 台灣, 大腦模仿病毒, 戒嚴, 民主, 蔣介石