Nelson Report:"Still Four More Noes"

The most recent Nelson report, an insiders consulting report on political doings in Washington DC, included an appraisal by two mainland Chinese scholars on the Cross-Strait relations:

2005 was a quiet year for cross-Strait relations. The Taiwan issue, however, returned early this year when Chen Shui-bian scrapped Taiwan's National Unification Council and National Unification Guidelines, two symbolic elements of the island's lip-service to the one-China posture. He broke's his promise five years ago not to eliminate them. There are still, in the next two years, four more "hoes" -- no declaration of independence, no change of Taiwan's legal name to something other than the Republic of China, no rewriting of the constitution to make Taiwan a separate state, and no referendum on independence, that can drop. At stake is not only cross-Strait, but also cross-Pacific, relations.

Given the nature of these issues, the Bush-Hu summit is of strategic importance by itself, regardless of the formalities. A stable and prosperous Asia-Pacific for Bush's last two years in office will be a plus for the administration, no matter what else is up in the air.

Regrettably, the writers promulgated the propaganda theme that Chen Shui-bian is a madman who can anything at anytime -- when in fact there is precisely zero chance of any of these things happening. The recent changes in the Constitutional amendment process have put paid to any chance of name rectification or major Constitional revision. The reason he axed the National Unification Council is because it was the one way he could respond to China's repeated alterations of the status quo that would be acceptable on the island. It also manages to slip in the false claim that Chen broke his promise when in fact the promise was conditional on China's not breaking the status quo. The two scholars who authored that section of the report knew perfectly well when they wrote it that the claims they were making were sheer nonsense. Sadly, the Nelson report has chosen to publish political proganda packaged as "analysis."

This gets back to a larger issue that Peking Duck had commented on in the post I linked to below (Peking Duck on Chinese Diplomacy). Hu's skills are formidable, but it is important to note that China's diplomatic offensive is aided by a vast apparatus of scholars both native and foreign that apologize for it, and a foreign media that often uncritically repeats its claims. Recall, for example, the spate of panda-related articles that appeared at the end of March in major US publications as Taiwan neared its decision on the pandas at the beginning of April. Even mainland scholars who otherwise oppose the CCP regime are still anti-independence. Hu may be the conductor, but he has a whole orchestra that follows his baton.

UPDATE: I post this and head over to Asiapundit, and lo and behold, Fox News is helping CCTV, the Chinese state TV station...

Three partners are jointly announcing the launch of CCTV International's new website. Collaborating with Fox Cable network and CCTV.COM, CCTV International hopes joint efforts will strengthen its image among current and potential viewers. And also to increase viewers for TV programs on CCTV International -- through the www.cctv.com website...

...FOX Cable Networks offered help with the design of the new web-page. The company says this is only the beginning of cooperation between Fox and CCTV International. Fox says the new webpage provides a source for the world to get to know about China.

Pundy adds with some asperity, bless him:

Perhaps all of those who were damning Google for the censored China site will now damn FOX for assisting CCTV, which has much more aggressive censorship policies than any US search engine.

I hope so too, Chris

[Taiwan] [US] [China] [Chen Shui-bian]