Travels in Taiwan, a great blog with wonderful pics, has the skinny on the Great Gorge in Chiayi. Prince Roy on the China blog world. Does this pic indicate permission to fart? Taken on a Shihlin Night Market street. This investor guide says Taiwan's economy kicks ass. ROC the Boat offers some acerbic commentary on Beijing's Panda-based WMDs Wild at Heart on the court victory by local farmers against the Central Taiwan Science Park EIA. Like I always say, ya gotta learn to think like a Taiwanese.... David rounds up some election analysis. B@Taiwan discusses teaching in a local junior high. Red A, who runs an international business, has some great comments on what's going in China and Vietnam. Gem with some video on scootering in Taiwan. Fili on the way everyone dresses for winter in 30C weather.
MEDIA: Tomdispatch has a great piece on the ramped up air war in Iraq. The New Zealand Herald on the implications of the KMT victory for dollar diplomacy in the Pacific even as the Sydney Morning Herald writes on Taiwan's move to shore up its Pacific allies, and the Jamestown foundation has a piece on Taiwan and the Spratlys. China's naval expansion troubles its neighbors. UPDATE: I sent the author of the piece in the NZ Herald an email discussing the many failings of his writing, but a friend in NZ outdid me by a mile.
[Taiwan]
The dollar diplomacy article is a dribbling of drivel. It "analyses" the issue by describing surface appearances without much detail and it also over-simplifies history, saying that Taiwan has called itself an independent country since the Chinese civil war. Nevermind the beliefs of the KMT or other segments of the population. Nevermind the tricky diplomatic status of the island following the end of WWII. It also attributes the loss of the DPP -- based on what "observers" say -- to Chen's cross-strait stance. No wonder the whole world is confused! And to think, this is what people in New Zealand will now believe.
ReplyDeleteI know, Thomas. I wrote him a long letter explaining all that. It's frustrating that so much writing on Taiwan is done by people whose knowledge is superficial at best.
ReplyDeleteThe writer of the dribbling drivel in the NZ Herald was Dev Nadkarni, who is a journalist from Samoa (he's not a Kiwi).
ReplyDeleteSamoa recognizes PRC and, speaking of stinking political largesse, benefits from a hefty multi-million dollar trade deal with the Mainland, among other things.
http://au.china-embassy.org/eng/xw/t308674.htm