Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Ma turns Taiwan into China?

Did Ma label Taiwan "China." According to a Taipei Times report, he did:

The delegation led by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on a state visit to the Dominican Republic — one of the nation’s allies — was referred to as “China, Taiwan” on embassy signs used to identify it.

An official with the embassy told the Taipei Times the signs were produced by the office as had been done in the past.

The flags of both countries were placed at the top of the signs, with the words “Special Mission” and “China, Taiwan” printed in Spanish underneath.

Ma’s delegation arrived in Santo Domingo late on Friday night and left yesterday morning. During their stay, members of the delegation were transported through the city in vehicles bearing the signs.

A veteran newsman who has accompanied Taiwan's Presidents on trips overseas to Latin America says that this presentation has misconstrued the Spanish designation to produce China-Taiwan. In fact, according to this newsman, this is a rendering of Chine-Taiwan which is quite common in Latin America, the hyphen implying equivalence. As is typical in representations of Taiwan in the media, people refer to Taiwan in a variety of ways. The reporter apparently mistook a common designation for another step in the creeping annexation of Taiwan to China.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The KMT make me sick to my stomach.

skiingkow said...

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Well, well, well. I remember leaving a comment the other day saying that all is left is to raise the Chinese flag over Taipei.

Little did I know how close to the truth that sarcastic statement was.

Never in my wildest cynical imagination did I think PandaMa would surrender Taiwan as quickly as this. Incredible!
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Anonymous said...

I am traveling in the Dominican Republic now. A couple of weeks ago I spotted a Burger King tray cover promoting an international film festival. The cover was covered in flags of various participating countries. The ROC flag was there and labeled China.

Anonymous said...

Many of the factories in this region are owned by Hong Kong and Taiwan entrepreneurs. Men like Philip Cheng, whose company, Strategic Sports, is one of the biggest manufactures of crash helmets, bemoan the sharp downturn. "We don't have any profit now. No profit!" he told me, as helmets snaked along on the conveyor belt behind him, workers pasting on the visors. "The days of cheap labor have gone. No cheap labor. OK?"