Cycling in Taiwan: a visitor observes. Taiwan: on the protest front-line from Global Voices, and the student protests. Red State blogger discusses the threat to Taiwan from Obama in total ignorance of actual Bush Administration policy. Save the Dolphins on the Dolphins see off Mailiao. Signs in Lukang The Former Native Speaker shows you how to tell the Obama Administration your hopes for Taiwan. Michella with a deeply moving post on her experiences of violence at the Chen Yunlin visit. A-gu has a comprehensive MAC poll on sovereignty issues. Todd actually got a shot of this bug I also spent 15 frustrating minutes trying to get the other day. Taiwan Identity on the richness of non-mandarin culture in Taiwan Jenna's excellent blog post on the sit-ins. Don't worry Jenna, the int'l media will be reporting soon! Urban farming in Neili from Patrick. J Michael on the assumption of Chen's guilt. The Foreigner's thoughts on Chen Yunlin.... The last of the BlackCat Commanders.
PETITION: You can sign on to the petition on the erosion of justice here.
MEDIA: Taiwan donates $200K to help resettle families after a hurricane. Laughably, AP suggests in a poorly-balanced article that Chen Shui-bian's arrest calls into question the independence movement. If I had a nickel for every time the independence movement was said to be in decline, I'd be a wealthy man indeed. A Businessweek blog entry compares Chen Shui-bian to Bill Clinton. Kaohsiung tour operators complain that there are few Chinese tourists. Imagine that...falling NT dollar good news for Taiwan's silicon foundries. CDC urges you to get your flu shots! Chinese bride claims fax to China is "domestic" and shouldn't get international rates. There's 240,000 of these yammerheads in Taiwan. Freighter runs aground, spills 100 tons of oil. Taiwan's central bank cuts interest rate for fourth time in two months. Watch out for a plummeting NT! Ma and Tsai to meet? Ma save us! Exports fall. Commonwealth Mag on the economy's worrisome fundamentals. Taiwanese drug trafficker busted with 100 kg of horse. Seems like Horse is causing all sorts of trouble these days. TFT-LCD maker Chunghwa pays $65 million in price fixing fine, FBI announces.
WILD STRAWBERRIES STUDENT PROTESTS: First from their blog, Cheng Hua has updated the students' statement. TaiwaneseAmerican.org on the Wild Strawberry Movement. Five hundred scholars sign on in support. President Ma rejects the student demand for replacing the Chiefs of the Police and NSA. The students should drop their first two demands and focus on the changes in the Assembly and Parade laws. The CNA report on the student demands. Ma addresses students by radio. Taiwan cannot allow human rights rollback, warns Taiwan News. Groups demand revisions to Assembly and Parade Law. Sit-in: a lesson for preserving democracy. Jenna's excellent blog post on the sit-ins. The Bala Daily on their possible exit strategy.
EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: Kaohsiung Charity Book Sale
Taiwan Communique, latest issue, is up.
Latest meetup information from Jerome, please RSVP to him as he needs a head count:
Topic: Taiwanese Media: Behind the Scenes.
Saturday November 29, 10 am
Speaker: Tzen-ping Su who served as Chariman of the Board of Taiwan's Central News Agency from July 2002 to June 2008.
Tzen-ping graduated from the Department of Economics at National Taiwan University and obtained a further degreee of Diplom-Volkswirt from the University ofFrankfurt in Germany.
He taught Economics at Soochow University, then worked forthe German Trade Office as senior staff and then became a journalist. From 1988 on he was a reporter, researcher, department head and then editorin chief at the Independence Evening Post Group. From 1996 to 2000 he worked for the Taiwan Daily as chief editorial writer.
In 2000 he was appointed the first non-mainlander DirectorGeneral (minister level) of the Government Information Office (GIO) and stayed there until the cabinet resuffle in Feb. 2002. After that he went to the Central News Agency for the regular six year term as Chairman.
Hewas also a co-initiatorand once president of the Association of Taiwanese Journalists, the first independent journalistorganization in Taiwan and now a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
With those credentials he can give us a good look behind the scenes of the media situation in Taiwan..
Venue: the same restaurant where we have been meeting on AnHe Road, just north of HePing.
Time: 10 am. RSVP to Jerome at jkeating@ms67.hinet.net
[Taiwan]
6 comments:
Funny how the independence movement is dead yet over 70 percent of Taiwanese are independent.
One pet peeve of mine are simplistic articles in the foreign press that keep saying that almost 1/3 of Taiwanese want independence because they can't recognise the fact that most of the "status quo" people see Taiwan as independent but don't see the need for the war that an official declaration would cause.
Despite the lack of acknowledgment of Bush's failure on foreign policy, the redstate.com does have a point. The Democrats has some "wussiness" when dealing with PRC in the past (*cough* Carter *cough*). I wouldn't be surprise some elements within Obama administration are leaning this way.
However, after the election, US seems be on the "moral highground" again amazingly. This does provide great flexibility for US foreign policy, which does need to include both toughness and cunning when needed. Let's face it, some people only respect those as oppose to the "wishy-washy group-think".
You wrote:
- - -
Laughably, AP suggests in a poorly-balanced article [...]
- - -
... an article in which Peter Enav wrote [bold emphasis mine]:
- - -
As Taiwan's leader from 2000 to May 2008, Chen Shui-bian made formal independence from China a sacred cause - doing everything he could to emphasize its political and cultural separateness from China, from which it split amid civil war in 1949.
- - -
And Enav wonders why he gets excoriated. I wonder why he isn't excoriated more often.
Tim Maddog
Quite a few times this year, watching deep-Blues and waisheng politicians on TV, really, you'd be absolutely shocked at what they were saying as compared to 8 years ago. Saying things like "I'm not Chinese" or "Taiwan=ROC". Maybe it's all just for show. I don't know. The KMT doesn't seem to have any real reason to be pandering holding 75% of seats.
Worried these days. I believe Chen is guilty, but having reunion talks in parallel with arrests of (other) opposition leaders is worrying. And no formal charges are made, people can be detained up to 4 month without them. Will we have free elections in 2012?
"The KMT doesn't seem to have any real reason to be pandering holding 75% of seats."
Totally disagree with you, anon. When you are in power and you hold a position that is at odds with that of the general population, it is indeed in your interests to pander, lest you be thrown out of office.
Post a Comment