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Sore losers are bad for talks

After China's football team lost 3-1 to the potent Japanese in the Asian Cup heartbreaker, Chinese nationalism once again reared its ugly head. Outraged fans protested outside the stadium, burning Japanese flags and pelting the Japanese team bus with bottles.

For Taiwanese people, these despicable scenes are awfully familiar. They are reminiscent of the protesters at Ketagalan Boulevard after the presidential election.

They have several things in common: For one thing, both groups were unable to accept the outcome of the respective contests. For any contender, accepting failure is pretty much the most basic, decent thing to do. Besides the ethical issue, Chinese fans sent a strong, disrespectful message to Taiwan that China is just simply too invincible, too powerful to ignore. It creates an "obey-me-or-die" impression. When it comes to the sensitive issue of cross-strait unification, the problem with China is that it always plays the self-regarding, petulant child. It never seems to grow up and stop discriminating against Taiwanese values.

On the other hand, Taiwanese society has evolved into a democracy, and no nationalism or populism can top that. In short, people's will comes first when it comes to cross-strait issues.

Threatening and blackmailing don't make for a good relationship, and this sort of behavior only scares away the Taiwanese.

While Beijing learns to improve its communication skills, our media also have much work to do. Since journalism is about objectivity and fairness, our journalists should expose more information about China, both positive and negative.

Since China is so desperate to unite with us, shouldn't we know more about it?

For instance, our journalists can interview some of the fans that burned the Japanese flag and get to know the real reasons for their anger.

But the local media have not been doing that. The fourth estate (the media) has been disregarded and undermined.

The cross-strait relationship is about communication, and good journalism -- rather than an information blackout -- is the key to better communication.

Burning flags and blackmailing other nations are extreme actions, and such things should be carefully examined and widely reported. Here is a word of advice to our press: "China is not a bed of roses, so don't act like it is."

Iap Hong Sum
Taipei
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