The media in Europe can still be alarmingly incompetent about Taiwan, while its politicians and institutions are doing better.
The incompetence appears to be guided by thinking trapped in a bubble of habitual thinking. Furthermore, it is a challenge to become informed when Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians pretend they support Taiwan, while their real goal is to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty and make Taiwan a part of China. Such politicians risk undermining public belief in the political system and Taiwan’s ability to navigate internationally.
Over the past seven years, KMT politicians have convinced media commentators and politicians in Europe to praise cross-strait relations and democratic development in Taiwan. The many signals of unsustainable political development have been downplayed and dismissed as insignificant.
On the political side, the EU has stayed positive on cross-strait relations and limited criticism of democratic development to capital punishment. However, lately there has been a change in Europe’s perception of Taiwan and the doors have been opened to various voices.
In the media, commentators and journalists revealed their knowledge about Taiwan and China during the meeting between the presidents of Taiwan and China in Singapore. Not surprisingly, the media in Germany and Denmark that invited Taiwan experts or had journalists with in-depth experience of Taiwan did far better than those who relied on China experts.
In Denmark, the national public radio and TV station, DR, relied on China experts to cover the meeting in Singapore. This habitual thinking of calling on China experts left the impression that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could lose the Jan. 16 elections because of the Singapore meeting.
Moreover, the meeting would bring Taiwan out of its international isolation and send a clear domestic signal to the DPP — if the DPP wins, cross-strait relations would come to a standstill. This was nonsense both before and after the Singapore meeting.
What DR broadcasts is important, because it is a principal source of news in Denmark. Other national media outlets, such as TV2 News and Radio24Syv, were far more balanced. They succeeded by combining international news about the meeting with experts on Taiwan. TV2 News interviewed Wu Cheng (吳崢), challenging a former foreign minister saying that Taiwanese are Chinese.
This balance was also found in some smaller newspapers. In explaining the situation in Taiwan, leading Danish newspaper Politiken described the Sunflower movement as violent. It is astonishing that a newspaper with correspondents in China and which employs Asian experts could define the events surrounding the Sunflower movement as riots.
Taiwan Corner complained to the newspaper about the word “riots.” The newspaper responded by citing a Chinese Web site saying that students smashed parts of the interior of the Legislative Yuan. Furthermore, it said the students have been accused of instigating others to commit crimes and clashed with police on March 24 last year.
A few years ago, Danish commentators and politicians talked about a future rapprochement between Taiwan and China, and about the end of the Chinese Civil War.
Some even concluded that Taiwanese confirmed their Chinese identity by electing the KMT.
The upcoming elections appear to be a wake-up call for many in Denmark, which is considered to be a nation with high standards in journalism and politics. Taiwanese will soon show that they are not dead fish flowing in a stream of pretentious KMT politicians dreaming about the rise of China, including Taiwan.
Michael Danielsen is chairman of Taiwan Corner.
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