Beijing officials are singing a new tune and have apparently decided to lift a ban on Taiwan pop diva Chang Hui-mei (
Last week, media in China reported that officials had invited the pop singer to perform the theme song for a university sporting event scheduled to take place in Beijing next year. In addition, A-mei would be permitted to hold 10 concerts in China, reports said.
A-mei had been banned in China since last year, after she sung the Republic of China's national anthem at President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) May 20 inauguration.
Analysts say China's easing of the ban against the 28-year-old singer was likely an attempt to appear more tolerant to the International Olympic Committee. Beijing hopes to host the Games in 2008.
"This move is to express goodwill to Taiwan, and it's part of the recent friendly gestures from Beijing," said Yang Chih-heng (楊志恆), political analyst at the Taiwan Research Institute.
A-mei's personal assistant, Kao I-sha (高一秀), said the performer was delighted to hear of the news that she would be able to perform in China again. "It's her longstanding hope that she can sing wherever Chinese people are," Kao said.
But Kao said A-mei had not yet received any formal notification of the ban's removal. "We received no formal document regarding the ban [last year], nor did we get anything about the lifting of the ban," Kao said.
Though her popularity once transcended tensions across the Taiwan Strait, A-mei had the plugged pulled on her after Beijing officials interpreted her performance at Chen's inauguration as a pro-independence political statement.
Television, newspaper and billboard advertisements for the soft drink Sprite featuring A-mei were pulled. One ad ran for at least a month on China Central Television before being pulled after A-mei's May 20 performance.
Before the ban, A-mei was rather popular in China, where she held six successful concerts in the summer of 1999.
The ban against A-mei was the first time Beijing had targeted an artist for political reasons, but the move deepened public revulsion in Taiwan toward Beijing authorities.
The lifting of the ban, analysts say, is meant to carry a political message to the public in Taiwan.
"Beijing used the temporary sanction to remind non-official actors in Taiwan that you can't step over Beijing's line ... when you are engaged in non-political activities," said Philip Yang (
"The fact that A-mei sang the national anthem at a sensitive time was perceived by hard-liners in Beijing as a rather political activity" that suggested the singer supported independence for Taiwan, Yang said.
But Yang said Chinese officials know that an indefinite sanction against the singer could only cause "permanent damage" to Beijing's image.
The Taiwan Research Institute's Yang views Beijing's recent move as a part of China's overall strategy to appear more accommodating toward Taipei. "As the US administration under the presidency of George W. Bush has maintained a rather hawkish attitude toward China, China has taken a softer line on Taiwan and hopes that the new approach will undercut support in Washington for Taiwan," the researcher said.
Philip Yang pointed to a statement by Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen (
"Qian was quoted as saying that `we understand the aspiration of our Taiwanese compatriots to maintain the status quo,' and this is very soft language," Yang said.
Meanwhile, market watchers said China's lifting of the ban could help A-mei's sagging CD sales.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS