The WHO on its database query site attempts to say that Taiwan is a province of China -- but in English, you can read those parentheses to say that China is a province of Taiwan. It's the kind of hilarious eff-up that happens when you kowtow. Meanwhile the map function disclaimer says that the political boundaries it draws don't mean anything -- if they don't mean anything, why then write "(Province of Taiwan)".Just imagine if the WHO wasn't serving Chinese expansionism. They could keep their honor, and not look like idiots on their own websites. Oh, for an alternate universe....
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Daily Links
- Arthur Dent has a chilling chilling chilling video of how the police treat protesters. Watch the behavior of the man in the white shirt -- another strange case of the police failing to take action against people who interfere with protesters. This needs to go viral.
- Ed Friedman's piece in Dissent on how China is winning the war between authoritarianism and democracy.
- Chairman Tsai Ing-wen's open letter on the DPP English blog.
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11 comments:
It's an excellent eff-up, but you can bet yer ass that they what they mean is "The Province of Taiwan in the hegemonic country known as the PRC."
Tim Maddog
Rofl - took me a while to get it at first ... guess my eyes couldn't comprehend how ANYONE could write China (Province of Taiwan). I have a picture of this saved for future hilarity at the craven WHO's expense.
you can piss them on but they are right. oficialy chinese ocupated Taiwan IS a province of Republic of China.
I think you read that wrong. With my limited English what I read was "China - (a) Province of Taiwan".
Chiang Kai Shek reloaded.
BTW, whether the guy in the white shirt in that video is a plainclothes cop or the pope's cousin, he's a thug, that much is for sure.
Tim Maddog
this is indeed hilarious
I love it! Of course they didn't mean it, and it will probably get changed, but for now it's truly hilarious.
Then again, that's just what the KMT wanted for so many years.
I wonder if officials in Beiping have noticed yet?
Clearly Country: China, Province: Taiwan is the intended meaning. Going to the WHO site, if you search at the top for "Province of Taiwan" you get all the links from the WHO that lead to "Republic of China" websites, such as the WHO's "digest of health legislation". If this is a slip-up, it's a consistent one as all historical references to Taiwan through the site directories (ie, blackfoot legislation) have all been edited to reflect "Province of Taiwan".
Here's a link to the query I mentioned above: http://search.who.int/search?ie=utf8&site=default_collection&client=WHO&proxystylesheet=WHO&output=xml_no_dtd&oe=utf8&q=province+of+taiwan&Search=Search&sitesearch=
i hope the english grammer i studied for the past 20 years were correct:
A (province of B)
"of" = possession, ie. belongs to
the parentheses is the definition or explanation of the word preceeds it :)
Anonymous (12:17 AM), the grammar is ambiguous, but in the context, it's perfectly clear what they mean.
Writing from Taiwan (City of Taichung (i.e., "Taichung City, Taiwan" not "Taiwan, a city that's part of Taichung"),
Tim Maddog
If you search under just "the world" Taiwan is totally absent, but under "region" and "Asia" you find some mention of Taiwan. How sad.
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