Here is an interesting lesson about Taiwanese newspapers.
The background is this: former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Randy Schriver met with Taiwanese officials and spoke to Taiwanese reporters.
In his briefing he disagreed with the characterization of China's invitations to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to visit China as "flexibility," -- something which the pan-blue media and parties have trumpeted.
Instead, he correctly characterized these moves as "more creative," which, while the Chinese increase the pressure on Chen Shui-bian (
This is not to mention the loving gaze of 800 Chinese ballistic missiles and the pan-blue forces blocking arms purchases.
These new, more creative Chinese tactics then, he asserts, are clever traps from which Taiwan must maneuver carefully. Most importantly, he characterized China as the real trouble-maker -- a phrase given to Taiwan by former US president Bill Clinton and members of his government.
The coverage:
The usually pro-blue China Times, [http://news.chinatimes. com/Chinatimes/newslist/newslist-content/0,3546,110502+112005060400021,00.html ] was quick to make sure that readers know that Schriver is "very friendly to Taiwan," and gave this fair headline: "Schriver: China is the real troublemaker."
The pan-green Taiwan Daily [http://www.taiwandaily.com.tw/index03.php?news_id=44987&datechange=2005-06-04&news_top=c1] ran a story with the headline: "Schriver: Chinese policy towards Taiwan more creative, but from international pressures and threats of invasion one cannot see `flexibility.'"
The pan-green Liberty Times [Editor's note: the Liberty Times is the Taipei Times' sister newspaper.] ran the headline: "Schriver: Hu Jintao's (
In terms of content, all the articles read relatively the same, even the China Times noted that according to Schriver, Bush's "whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan comment was genuine.
Now let's turn to the United Daily News [http://udn.com/NEWS/FINANCE/FIN2/2713746.shtml]. It tucked the story deep inside its subsidiary Economic Daily News with a headline that misleadingly read: "Schriver: Taiwan must wisely utilize Beijing's creativity."
If you spend the time to parse the grudging UDN story closely, you pretty much get the main point, which is entirely contrary to the misleading headline. The UDN also strikingly took time to emphasize that Schriver "does not think the KMT and PFP leaders meant to hurt Taiwan" with their tours of China.
Strikingly, it also omitted the "troublemaker" observation. It should be noted that UDN is the Taiwanese strategic partner of the New York Times, and the publisher of that paper happens to be visiting Taiwan.
Liang Hong-ming
Shaker Heights, Ohio
The first Donald Trump term was a boon for Taiwan. The administration regularized the arms sales process and enhanced bilateral ties. Taipei will not be so fortunate the second time around. Given recent events, Taiwan must proceed with the assumption that it cannot count on the United States to defend it — diplomatically or militarily — during the next four years. Early indications suggested otherwise. The nomination of Marco Rubio as US Secretary of State and the appointment of Mike Waltz as the national security advisor, both of whom have expressed full-throated support for Taiwan in the past, raised hopes that
There is nothing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) could do to stop the tsunami-like mass recall campaign. KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) reportedly said the party does not exclude the option of conditionally proposing a no-confidence vote against the premier, which the party later denied. Did an “actuary” like Chu finally come around to thinking it should get tough with the ruling party? The KMT says the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is leading a minority government with only a 40 percent share of the vote. It has said that the DPP is out of touch with the electorate, has proposed a bloated
Authorities last week revoked the residency permit of a Chinese social media influencer surnamed Liu (劉), better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), who has more than 440,000 followers online and is living in Taiwan with a marriage-based residency permit, for her “reunification by force” comments. She was asked to leave the country in 10 days. The National Immigration Agency (NIA) on Tuesday last week announced the decision, citing the influencer’s several controversial public comments, including saying that “China does not need any other reason to reunify Taiwan with force” and “why is it [China] hesitant
A media report has suggested that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was considering initiating a vote of no confidence in Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) in a bid to “bring down the Cabinet.” The KMT has denied that this topic was ever discussed. Why might such a move have even be considered? It would have been absurd if it had seen the light of day — potentially leading to a mass loss of legislative seats for the KMT even without the recall petitions already under way. Today the second phase of the recall movement is to begin — which has
RSS