A few links for today...first up, Robert Maguire AKA The Only Redhead in Taiwan, is getting married. He has written a long post explaining that he needs your help with paperwork. Go leave a comment there!A study in contrasts: Mark Forman has video of Taichung's largest market, down by the train station, and fili, now in Israel, blogs on a flea market in Jaffa with some neat video. Steve Crook has an article in Fountain No. 5, a mag dedicated to sports in Taiwan. David reviews Framing the Bride. In China there is no Taiwan, says Richard. Taiwanese Heart, Global Perspectives blogs on Taiwan, politics, and the Olympics too. Islaformosa on banks and banking here. US-Taiwan defense command has a few good pics on the evolution of the Grand Hotel in Taipei over the years. How dumb is numerology?
Over at DailyKos there's another great blog on the South Ossetia/Georgia mess that shows how impoverished the two competing media narratives from the Right (Perfidious Russia!) and the Left (Perfidious US!) really are.
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There is one more that I think needs mentioning, if only for one quote. In today's SCMP, Lawrence Chung's article "Chequebook Diplomacy Shelved for Ma's Trip" says "Taiwanese foreign minister Ou Hung-lian said last month that if Paraguay switched recognition to Beijing after Mr. Ma returned to Taiwan, it would mean Beijing had rejected Mr. Ma's 'workable diplomacy' policy."
ReplyDeleteThe fact that someone in Ma's own administration has been cited as saying this could put Ma in quite a bind if Paraguay does switch. Lugo has already indicated that he does want to switch to the PRC. Will the PRC be able to resist accepting? In fact, if Taiwan loses any allies in the next four years, Ma will look super-bad because of how much he is playing up this 'workable diplomacy' crap.
This has been addressed here before, but I just thought I would mention it again now that a KMT-friendly journalist seems to have picked up on the potential fragility of one element of Ma's cross-strait policies.
Thanks Michael!
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