Three years ago Mark Chen, then Taiwan's foreign minister, lashed out at Singapore officials for their remarks on Taiwan's drive for independence and democracy, using colorful Taiwanese idiom that made his comments instantly memorable:An exasperated Chen, speaking in the earthy Taiwanese dialect rather than the more formal Mandarin that is supposed to be the national language, was commenting on remarks by his Singaporean counterpart George Yeo. Chen said Yeo had just been "fondling China's balls", meaning that it was fawning over China by criticizing Taiwan. Chen went on: "Even Singapore, a country smaller than a piece of snot, can swagger around to criticize Taiwan at the United Nations. Where is the justice in the world?"
The Taiwan Air Power blog recently chronicled another example of ball fondling by the city-state:
According to Chris Pocock, who is currently visiting Taiwan after covering Singapore Airshow 2008 for Aviation International News (AIN), the show organizers not only forced AIDC to blacken out the national insignia of the Republic of China on the aircraft featured at its stand but also barred AIDC from handing out its brochures, in which the national insignia could be seen. AIN’s Thierry Dubois wrote in the February 20 issue (this hyperlink may stop functioning after a while):Go and read the rest....
[Taiwan]
This post just viscerally cries out for a Youtube link. Anyone out there can help out?
ReplyDeleteI just got back from Singapore and he's right, it ISN'T much bigger than a piece of snot.
ReplyDeleteI saw two rats, too. TWO!
Singapore ain't what they're cracked up to be.
How ironic Singapore, which enjoys independence from Malaysia, is against Taiwan's struggle for formal independence.
ReplyDeleteIf Singaporeans are so pro-China, how about annexing themselves to China?
Singapore was kicked out of Malaysa. The Malay elite were worried about a Chinese-dominated PAP in competition with their own party. In the past, Singapore's policy was even handed. It didn't recognize the PRC or Taiwan and both had trade offices there. Of course this changed almost two decades ago. Now many Singaporeans see the PRC as trying to emulate their country despite the differences in size and geography. Anyways, I'm not suprised they're bending this way, although you think for an airshow, they'd allow the symbol
ReplyDeleteActually, Chewy, Richard's point holds, because Singapore demanded independence from Britain and would settle for no less. It also set about building a unique Singaporean identity, shades of our current leadership here in Taiwan.
ReplyDeleteOf course, we can only carry this analogical understanding so far because then Singapore promptly unified with Malaysia.... LOL. And then was kicked out due to paranoia about Chinese influence, as you observe.
Michael
Bladi gahmen's at it again. BTW, many of Don Lee Kwan Yew's development policies were said to resemble Maoist ideologies from the Malaysian side of the border.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the Singlish word for "kissass"? Or how about "blatant cowardice", for that matter?