Reasons don’t/do matter
Dear Johnny,
You challenged: “Explain why the BBC would be ‘dishonest’” (Johnny Neihu’s Mailbag, Oct. 17, page 8). Are you asking me to explain their motivations, or do you want me to draw a Venn diagram comparing the BBC’s reports, China’s claims and the facts for uninformed readers?
If it’s the former, I don’t know that the reasons matter so much as getting readers to take notice of such behavior, since it’s highly improbable (by which I mean “an utter impossibility”) that they’ll stop doing it. As I point out in the Taiwan Matters blog, the BBC’s “diligent ‘laziness’” ensures that well-crafted memes get repeated endlessly — and rarely (ie, only on days when TVBS isn’t attacking Chen Shui-bian) in Taiwan’s favor.
If it’s the latter, the arguments are presented step-by-step (with links) in the blog post I linked to in my earlier letter and in the 11 previous installations of the series.
TIM MADDOG
Johnny replies: I’m not really convinced. Stubborn, incompetent, plodding, lazy ... all might explain the BBC’s casual treatment of Taiwan. “Dishonest” suggests a hidden agenda, so the reasons do matter.
A big-nose perspective
Dear Johnny,
To quote you: “In the meantime, what are you, as a person most locals would regard as a foreigner, willing and able to do, other than write letters to me?” (Johnny Neihu’s Mailbag, Oct. 17, page 8).
Well, I read some BBC Web pages and wrote them a letter. I do hope they print it. I know I’ll get a polite reply that they have received my comment, and that they thank me for my contribution. However, they’ll say, we can’t assure you that it will get printed and yada yada yada.
I can’t do anything else except write to you and hope to educate the electorate. Which is a tacit way of saying that you should translate foreigners’ letters for your sister paper.
I would hope that some Taiwanese could see the perspective of us dabizi (大鼻子)!
We foreigners have seen things here and back home, as well as in China and all over the Earth. Any civilized and rational person would not be in the KMT’s favor. Most of my friends agree that the only reason the KMT clings to power is because so many of its voters are direct beneficiaries: teachers, soldiers, civil servants. How can the DPP get more votes with only 40 percent of the vote belonging to “farmers”?
The only way I can help, Johnny, is by reminding voters to punish the KMT in the year-end elections.
I believe that on one of those BBC pages I saw a stat I thought was wrong. Correct me if I’m wrong, but did the DPP ever have control of the Legislative Yuan? Let me know, Johnny, and in time we’ll see if the BBC will hire me.
HARRY ADAMOPOULOS
Johnny replies: The DPP has never controlled the legislature. And if the BBC hires you, don’t tell Tim Maddog.
Taiwan’s higher education system is facing an existential crisis. As the demographic drop-off continues to empty classrooms, universities across the island are locked in a desperate battle for survival, international student recruitment and crucial Ministry of Education funding. To win this battle, institutions have turned to what seems like an objective measure of quality: global university rankings. Unfortunately, this chase is a costly illusion, and taxpayers are footing the bill. In the past few years, the goalposts have shifted from pure research output to “sustainability” and “societal impact,” largely driven by commercial metrics such as the UK-based Times Higher Education (THE) Impact
History might remember 2026, not 2022, as the year artificial intelligence (AI) truly changed everything. ChatGPT’s launch was a product moment. What is happening now is an anthropological moment: AI is no longer merely answering questions. It is now taking initiative and learning from others to get things done, behaving less like software and more like a colleague. The economic consequence is the rise of the one-person company — a structure anticipated in the 2024 book The Choices Amid Great Changes, which I coauthored. The real target of AI is not labor. It is hierarchy. When AI sharply reduces the cost
The inter-Korean relationship, long defined by national division, offers the clearest mirror within East Asia for cross-strait relations. Yet even there, reunification language is breaking down. The South Korean government disclosed on Wednesday last week that North Korea’s constitutional revision in March had deleted references to reunification and added a territorial clause defining its border with South Korea. South Korea is also seriously debating whether national reunification with North Korea is still necessary. On April 27, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung marked the eighth anniversary of the Panmunjom Declaration, the 2018 inter-Korean agreement in which the two Koreas pledged to
I wrote this before US President Donald Trump embarked on his uneventful state visit to China on Thursday. So, I shall confine my observations to the joint US-Philippine military exercise of April 20 through May 8, known collectively as “Balikatan 2026.” This year’s Balikatan was notable for its “firsts.” First, it was conducted primarily with Taiwan in mind, not the Philippines or even the South China Sea. It also showed that in the Pacific, America’s alliance network is still robust. Allies are enthusiastic about America’s renewed leadership in the region. Nine decades ago, in 1936, America had neither military strength
RSS