As expected, pan-blue and pan-green camp supporters clashed at CKS International Airport yesterday when Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) departed on his visit to China, where he will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). The bloody clashes showed that Lien's "peace visit" lost its peacefulness even before he left the country.
Many Taiwanese -- especially pan-green camp supporters -- object to Lien's visit. One reason is Lien's bad timing: his trip comes shortly after China passed its "Anti-Secession" Law authorizing force against Taiwan. But the heart of the problem is that Lien is meeting with a Chinese Communist Party bureaucrat who once ruthlessly suppressed the Tibetan people, and who now perpetuates a one-party dictatorship, tramples on human rights and suppresses religious freedoms. The fact that Lien will sit down to talk with a man who has the blood of his own people on his hands is frightening and unsettling to many people in Taiwan.
Pan-green camp supporters are furious that Lien should visit China without even dignifying President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) with a visit before leaving. They also worry that Lien will do whatever he can to join hands with China and manipulate Taiwanese elections so that the KMT can regain its hold on power. There is a lot of Chinese government money at work behind the scenes at several Taiwanese newspapers and TV stations. People have already been angered by the outrageous reports in such China-funded media outlets supporting the pan-blue camp and smearing the pan-green camp at election time.
Just as the Chinese government is searching for a way to proceed toward its goal of unification, and looking for someone who can act as their spokesman here, leaders of Taiwan's opposition parties have thrown themselves into China's embrace. They could become Beijing's mouthpieces, who -- through the abuse of Taiwan's cherished freedom of the press -- will seek to undermine the democratic institutions Taiwan has established with so much difficulty, and drag the country into a bog of political and social division. Faced with this prospect, it's not surprising that many Taiwanese have been so vocal in their calls that Lien not sell out his country.
Pan-blue camp supporters say that Lien will be talking to Hu about China's purchase of Taiwan's agricultural products, greater protection for the lives and property of Taiwanese businesspeople in China and even the withdrawal of missiles currently targeted at Taiwan. But these issues are not the chief cause of Taiwan's deep-rooted resentment of China's power. That animosity stems from China's rejection of democracy, which has put an unbridgeable gulf between the lifestyles and social systems of the two peoples on either side of the Taiwan Strait. Even if Beijing did agree to withdraw its missiles, the majority of the Taiwanese people would still not agree to unify with China.
Taiwan has experienced the oppressive government of the Japanese colonial regime and that of the KMT. What they value more than anything else is the freedom to live as they choose, guaranteed by a democratic system whose liberties can be ranked with that of any advanced nation in the world.
Yesterday, the people protesting at the airport were defending these cherished universal values. They were making their views plain to Lien, a man who might threaten such values. They are fighting for Taiwan's democracy and freedom and rejecting a slavery that violates human dignity. Even if Beijing is able to buy some of Taiwan's politicians, it will never win over the Taiwanese people.
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
Liberals have wasted no time in pointing to Karol Nawrocki’s lack of qualifications for his new job as president of Poland. He has never previously held political office. He won by the narrowest of margins, with 50.9 percent of the vote. However, Nawrocki possesses the one qualification that many national populists value above all other: a taste for physical strength laced with violence. Nawrocki is a former boxer who still likes to go a few rounds. He is also such an enthusiastic soccer supporter that he reportedly got the logos of his two favorite teams — Chelsea and Lechia Gdansk —
RSS