tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post4413268058599107004..comments2023-10-22T18:25:39.688+08:00Comments on The View from Taiwan: Phone Code FolliesMichael Turtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-13418139944999834042010-10-01T13:29:20.517+08:002010-10-01T13:29:20.517+08:00Sir,
Some gumshoe research, declassified, turns u...Sir,<br /><br />Some gumshoe research, declassified, turns up this tidbit about the phone code follies you describe above. Call me anon, reporting from Geneva for now: read carefully or carelessly, your pick:<br /><br />''Most people forget or don't know, but<br />country codes for long distance calls are actually a fairly new thing.<br />In the old days, before 1960, long distance calls all over the world were made indirectly by calling<br />an operator first, who then connected you to the number you wanted<br />overseas. [The U.S. had a country code number as far back as the 1920s,<br />according to sources, but most countries did not get assigned codes until<br />the 1960s and 1970s.] <br /><br />''Today, the process continues, and new problems arise,<br />as in the case of Kosovo and Montenegro in Europe. Check their country codes if you wish. Trouble brewing there, too.<br /><br />''Believe it or not, Taiwan in the 1960s had a calling code of ''866''. [8 - 6 - 6.....]<br /><br />Read<br />that number again: [8-*66]. Not 8-*86, but 866. The ROC, as a then-member of the<br />UN, chose that number<br />for itself, and the ITU allowed it to keep it. The PRC did not come into play yet....<br /><br />But..... after the PRC was admitted to the<br />the UN in 1971 along with the representatives of stupid arrogant and stubborn CKS being expelled because he did not want to even think of the idea of having a ROC seat along side a PRC seat, which was offered to him by the USA side,<br />and with US recognition of China in 1979, the issue of country codes<br />became mucho importante for commie China.<br /><br />Therefore.... it asked the UN to<br />take 866 away from the ROC and assign the 866 number to one of its own rural provinces, actually taking the<br />number away from the ROC. <br /><br />''As a result, for a<br />number of years, Taiwan had NO overseas calling number and all<br />incoming calls from overseas had to be run thru pretty phone operators in<br />their respective countries, interacting with phone operators in Taipei.....''<br /><br />[UNQUOTABLE]<br /><br />[these unverifibale but likely true "facts" above spoken by secret agent ''Deep Swiss Chocolate'' in Geneva during a long distance phone call with an choco-op in the 886 area....]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-56091790451105195202010-09-26T09:56:07.539+08:002010-09-26T09:56:07.539+08:00Thank god there is still "tw" on the int...Thank god there is still "tw" on the internt (if during the internt era, Ma is the President, there probably won't be a "tw" domain on the WWW). China appears to be very anal about this type of things. I wond what they are up to now.Dixteelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05689510846926854542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-40219811952282375092010-09-26T00:38:07.994+08:002010-09-26T00:38:07.994+08:00@Don, who wrote: "it looks like a pretend agr...@Don, who wrote: "it looks like a pretend agreement only, a feeble fudge with no footing in the real world."<br /><br />Real world? Let’s see:<br /><br />In early 1950, CKS told his underlings that ROC was dead and that they were a bunch of exiles in a foreign land. <br /><br />CKS was aware that Formosa was then US occupied Japanese territory, and that he was in the palm of Truman's hand. <br /><br />Add to this that in summer 1952, then Foreign Minister of an already bygone ROC, George Ye told the LY that even if she so wanted, Japan could not give CKS what she had already renounced in the SFPT.<br /><br />With boots on the ground, CKS had effective control over Formosa only because the existence of his puppet dictatorship dovetailed with US core interests in the region at the time.<br /><br />Now, keep in mind that Taiwan (the old ROC per TRA nomenclature) remains an undecided issue pending an international treaty over its ultimate status of sovereignty.<br /><br />What can the Chinese twins do about Formosa, except to plod down the road to reunification under the Shanghai communiqué and its Chinese version in the 1992 consensus? <br /><br />What can they do except fudging the issue in the eye of a brainwashed Formosan public and a listless world opinion in the hope to ultimately put the world under notice that the Formosans are Chinese?<br /><br />While the US remains mum over its responsibility to the Formosans as an entity separate from Taiwan (the old ROC per TRA nomenclature), the only hope left the Formosans is that all involved know what stock US diplomacy puts in declarations, communiqués and other press releases.<br /> <br />Your comment is scratching upon the thorn in the thighs of the Chinese twins.jerome in valsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-75791631961643816322010-09-26T00:33:28.525+08:002010-09-26T00:33:28.525+08:00Michael, have you seen the rhetoric in the local t...Michael, have you seen the rhetoric in the local talk shows about the dispute between China and Japan? They are shifting the blame on the US, accusing the current Gov't on looking for an excuse to start a war in South East Asia. That's right. They even had two channels with programs explaining how the current conditions were the same as 1930's and hence the US, in the same way "it waited out to join the WWII at the crucial moment", was just waiting for the opportunity to jump at a war, joining forces with Japan.<br /><br />Oh, brother...<br /><br />Oh, and apparently Google also identified Kinmen as part of Fukien Province, People's Republic of China, in Google Maps, including its military installations, schools, etc, ran by the PRC.TicoExpathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09924420017053186115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-28978990381444956902010-09-25T22:18:49.618+08:002010-09-25T22:18:49.618+08:00PLAN is like Earl Boykins , USN is Shaq and the J...PLAN is like Earl Boykins , USN is Shaq and the Japanese Navy Carmelo Anthony.<br /><br /><br /> Where's the Heat here?<br /><br /><br /><br /> RichaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-7728922697366795272010-09-25T16:42:40.092+08:002010-09-25T16:42:40.092+08:00Utterly mysterious this ECFA thing.
The preamble...Utterly mysterious this ECFA thing. <br /><br />The preamble makes clear that it's an agreement concerning "Two Parties": SEF and ARATS. No mention of Taiwan or China by any of their designations.<br /><br />In the articles that follow everthing referring to the condition, activities and intentions of the two parties (eg "liberalization of trade in goods and services between the Two Parties") is therefore referring to SEF and ARATS. And it's not a translation issue. <br /><br />The annexes specify Taiwan Side and Mainland Side where needed, but the main body of the agreement is uncompromising: it's an agreement between two organizations each employing a few dozen people and apparently flogging billions of dollars worth of stuff to each other. <br /><br />Ok, I don't know contract law. Maybe this makes perfect sense to trade lawyers and WTO bureaucrats. But to these untrained eyes it looks like a pretend agreement only, a feeble fudge with no footing in the real world.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-16018536609551602172010-09-25T15:46:10.688+08:002010-09-25T15:46:10.688+08:00"There's nothing like buying Taipei voter...<i>"There's nothing like buying Taipei voters with southern Taiwan tax dollars..."</i><br /><br />Yes there is; the very same thing - buying voters with tax dollars - the theft and bribery has moral salience enough on its own without the north-south specifications.mikehttp://www.mirrorsignalmove.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-15338856390859065822010-09-25T14:11:31.124+08:002010-09-25T14:11:31.124+08:00Word up on buying Taipei votes with Southern tax d...Word up on buying Taipei votes with Southern tax dollars. The story the world over, I say.阿牛https://www.blogger.com/profile/08403972286057197709noreply@blogger.com