J Michael Cole's piece on Chinese intelligence penetration of the ROC military has generated some indignant pushback from the KMT; quite embarrassing it is for them to have stuff like this aired in the WSJ. The TT noted:However, at a separate setting, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers implied there was a political overtone to the matter, with KMT Legislator Herman Shuai (帥化民) saying the purpose of the op-ed piece was to “humiliate the military” and to “insult President Ma’s [Ying-jeou (馬英九)] administration” to achieve its desired objective in January’s presidential and legislative elections.However, on his Facebook page, J Michael Cole pointed to a CNA article on him and a photo of his short meeting with Vice Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang, "a great gentleman and professional", who spoke to him in front of everyone, including the media, a clear message. The sort of rhetoric deployed against Cole is normal, but it is still not pleasant to face. Hope things go well with him.
KMT caucus whip Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) made several demands of Cole, the Taipei Times and its sister newspaper, the Chinese-language Liberty Times.
She asked Cole to provide evidence to back up his statements, or offer an apology and admit the allegations are incorrect if he is unable to do so.
The allegations have dealt a blow to the country’s image and hurt its interests when Taiwan is still waiting for a decision by the US on the sale of F16C/D aircraft, the lawmaker said.
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Daily Links
- FT: Chinese vessel confronts Indian naval vessel leaving a southern Vietnamese port on its way to a northern one in Vietnamese waters, claiming that they were Chinese waters and demanding to know what the Indian craft was doing there. Indians just should have sunk the bastards. FT also has a good piece on how China is involved in water disputes with all its neighbors and with ethnic groups in its recently annexed territories.
- Latest TVBS poll for election shows Ma over Tsai comfortably, most Taiwanese identifying as Taiwanese and majority support for independence. You figure it out.
- Dr Tsai interview in WSJ (video). WSJ is on a roll with Taiwan stuff; there is also a piece on Tsai to partner the video.
- I've pointed out how counterproductive and stupid Australia's South Pacific islands policy is -- by suppressing Taiwan's influence there, Canberra loses a weapon against China, whose influence it fears. This piece shows just how disgusting Australia's policies were: "The leaked US cables also report that Australia has unsuccessfully sought to persuade Nauru and the Solomon Islands to abandon diplomatic relations with Taiwan."
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.
9 comments:
I hope Cole is being really careful. One thing I don't see mentioned is how the Chinese military and communist party are taking this.
I expect something to happen to him in the future, just not right now. I'm sure Liberty Times is sweating that. they might find that the GIO all of a sudden has problems with their coverage.
"Poll shows Ma over Tsai comfortably, most Taiwanese identifying as Taiwanese and majority support for independence. You figure it out"
Not much to figure out. Most Taiwanese believe Taiwan already is indendent and that the KMT is less likely to cause a change in that condition.
Michael, did you notice that Tsai was speaking English beneath the "English translation" in the WSJ video?
Yo, WSJ! WTF?!
Tim Maddog
"Not much to figure out. Most Taiwanese believe Taiwan already is indendent and that the KMT is less likely to cause a change in that condition."
@SoCalExpert - you have simply replaced one conundrum with another.
Taiwan's representative in Australia had a letter published in The Age on the same day as the article about the South Pacific you linked to above. Here is the content of the letter:
WikiLeaks baseless
THE WikiLeaks allegations ("Nauru officials' 'friendly payoffs''', 29/8; "Solomons' legacy: '$1bn wasted'", 30/8) against Taiwan are untrue and baseless. It has never been our government's policy to buy influence with cash or so-called ''secret payments''. Taiwan's development aid is project-based or for national budgetary support in line with OECD international development aid practices. It is a well-known fact that since President Ma Ying-jeou's assumption of office in 2008, my government's foreign aid programs have fully conformed to international practices and guidelines.
Moreover, we respect Nauru and Solomon Islands as Taiwan's important partners in the Pacific and we have never been involved in their internal politics. Taiwan has indeed assigned technical missions and volunteers in both countries to help locals, including developing medical services, agriculture infrastructure and sustainable economic development.
Gary Song-Huann Lin, representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Australia
http://www.theage.com.au/national/letters/end-exploitation-for-political-gain-20110901-1jo5i.html#ixzz1WqlB0wCb
Joe Hung of the CNA at the ''China Pest'' (sic) wrote this unsigned editorial re pushback on this:
Military reform must give Taiwan the will to stand tall
by Joe Hung, CNA chairman, 79 yrs old, former communist, now KMT champion
Jane's Defense Weekly correspondent J. Michael Cole wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal arguing that if the Ma administration does not stand tall in its cross-strait policy and lacks determination to houseclean Taiwan's military intelligence, the U.S. will become reluctant to share the kind of weapons and intelligence that the nation needs to keep China off its shores. He may be right or wrong. However, Mr. Cole's concern deserves to be thanked. But perhaps Taiwan must not go back to such a cold-war mentality when the world is undergoing unprecedented globalization. Especially when China is a rising power attracting the world to do business there and that cross-strait relations have passed beyond the zero-sum game into a new, cooperative, win-win phase.
MORE AT:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/editorial/taiwan-issues/2011/09/04/315418/Military-reform.htm
Team Taoyuan, bikers all! Go go Michael, both of you!
It was odd (well not that odd) that his original piece was not published in The Liberty Times. It was only published indirectly by reporting on the WSJ opinion over a week later. Not to mention that that article was released exactly the same day as an even more indirect piece in the Lien He Bao. Again, I agree with Okami that I hope Cole is being careful. I still don't get why after the original article in The Taipei Times, The Taipei Times complained the next day that there was no coverage in the Chinese media about Bill Moo's whereabouts. Don't they have the Liberty Times?
Anyone else notice that the KMT uses "similar" tactics to the CCP...both argue that they have been slandered, and that the image of the nation has been hurt etc...Both cloak themselves behind the "feelings of the peoples", as if they really represent the totality of the nation's consciousness.
This then justifies their harsh response.
And both are telling foreigners to mind our own business with the message being less and less subtle in the case of this administration.
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