City diplomacy
I read the opinion piece by Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy (“City diplomacy offers opportunities,” Dec. 26, page 8) with interest.
I quite like the idea, and have myself written about the advantages of “smart” cities in other publications. I like Ferenczy’s ideas overall, and that “local governments can increase their capacity to network internationally and bring solutions.”
The “smart” city aside — an area in which Taiwan obviously has many solutions — such diplomacy is intriguing, and would no doubt provide “a particularly valuable platform to circumvent [Taiwan’s] isolation” in international affairs.
Ferenczy goes on about “using city diplomacy to leverage existing strengths and to enable new ones to flourish,” which is a good idea, but one with even more at stake than this writer seems to envision.
My point here is that “city diplomacy” could lead to more, and yield not only “practical” value, but veritably international fruits, which many have to date felt to be unattainable.
A “localized” diplomacy and craft could lead to that which is universal, ecumenical, that is to say, the inclusive and global.
With cities in Taiwan initiating and establishing “home-grown” sister-city relationships around the world, it might well be a short step from there into “national” relationships — and China might not have much chance to object to such a lateral leap, a step from the linear to the unlimited.
Hooray for that, I say, and I think we can see here that such short steps might indeed lead to longer leaps. Applause again to Ferenczy for bringing this up.
David Pendery
Taiwan
‘Asia Weekly’ farce
The cover of Monday last week’s issue of Asia Weekly shows President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as the Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后). It was ridiculous, as Tsai is popularly elected and has not been guilty of killing or persecuting people. What is her similarity with Cixi?
It is no secret that Cixi killed her political enemies, and once she got her hands on the reigns of power, she ran amok. She was more powerful and cruel than even the first three emperors, and initiated the Boxer Rebellion, which killed many foreigners and resulted in the Eight-Nation Alliance’s attack on Beijing.
She is also suspected of having killed the Guangxu (光緒) emperor, angering people and gods. How could Tsai be compared to this?
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), on the other hand, is a veritable emperor. In 2019, he amended Chinese “law” to expand his powers by removing term limits and allowing him to become president for life.
Asia Weekly would never dare report that, and as the magazine’s impartiality is already in question, it simply decided not to criticize Xi and go after Tsai instead. It really is laughable.
In May last year, Republicans in the US House of Representatives announced that they would work to counteract China, and Voice of America recently listed 10 major US anti-Chinese bills passed last year, including the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative Act and the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020. They all help Taiwan improve its military defenses and ability to defend itself.
If Tsai wanted to become another Cixi, surely the US would never assist Taiwan in this way.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) happily expressed its approval of the Asia Weekly hit piece, a sure sign of confusion, as the real dictators were Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), who behaved as emperors for decades, killing and persecuting countless people.
If the party does not want to condemn the two Chiangs, it should at least refrain from praising them as great men.
The number of Taiwanese supporting Tsai far exceeds the number of people unhappy with her, which just makes the Asia Weekly’s article even more laughable.
Teng Hon-yuan
New Taipei City
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