WantWant goes after student who got Chomsky to pose with anti-media monopoly image. Chomsky and another academic contacted have clearly said they did not know that the words "China's black hand" were included in the sign.
Retired generals from PRC and ROC want China and Taiwan to work together on Senkakus issue. That would be awful for Taiwan in so many ways, from making Tokyo and Washington angry at it, to strengthening China's claim to Taiwan. Remember, in the minds of right-wing nationalist fossils on both sides of the Strait, the claim to the Senkakus, Taiwan, and Okinawa are of a piece. And it comes right on the heels of the CRS report I linked to below which warns Congress to pay attention to possible Taiwan-China cooperation. It's pretty clear that at least one fork in the KMT's Senkakus strategy involves using the islands to make the US distance itself from Taiwan. I hope someone high up in AIT gives an interview in Chinese with the local Chinese language press and explains this strategy to the locals so pressure can be put on Ma to stop. And that the US re-considers its support for Ma. But see below....
...Why won't the US reconsider its support of Ma? This article by Brendan O'Reilly in the Asia Times looks like yet another one of those dreary articles claiming that the "pivot" of Obama is triggering a war in Asia. Forget that silliness. Look instead at who it relies on, Ken Lieberthal and Cheng Li, of Brookings. Cheng Li is at the John Thornton Center at Brookings. That center is named after the Chairman of the Brookings Board of Trustees and a big donor, John Thornton. I quote from The Mandarins:
....Thornton is also a director not only of corporations with huge interests in China (Ford, News Corporation) but also of large Chinese corporations (Commercial Bank of China, China Netcorn), and is even a professor at Tsinghua University....as for Kenneth Lierberthal, a major Asia figure who was the NSC's Asia Director under Bill Clinton and is Hillary Clinton's Asia guy, he had/has a post in Stonebridge China, the quietly influential China consulting firm which has/had several of its members in Administrations past and present. O'Reilly is no doubt writing in good faith; as for his sources, readers will have to make up their own minds. But I've seen a lot of pro-China whitewash stuff from Stonebridge employees scattered all over the media (for example). The US foreign policymaking community is populated with individuals doing business with China. Probably why US policy and media discourse on China is so awful. Now go and read The Mandarins if you haven't.
The staidly conservative pro-blue organization TISR (formerly Global View's survey unit) finds that support for independence has dropped. Can we see some analysis of the sample, please?
In case you live in a cave, Chinese hackers attack NYTimes for Wen Jiabao reporting. Best tweet: @JoshGartner: MOFA [Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs]: "We have read all of the NY Times internal emails and they have no evidence that China hacked their accounts."
ADDED: Forgot to point out that Ma tapped his fourth premier in five years. Remember when he accused Chen of constantly rotating officials? Under Taiwan's strange customary arrangements, cabinet officials are axed to "take responsibility" for Administration unpopularity or screw ups. But a perspicacious friend tipped me off to this prescient blog post in Chinese arguing that Premier Chen's replacement, Jiang Yi-hua, would become premier and make a great 2016 candidate. The KMT news organ noted:
Jiang Yi-huah was born in 1960. He holds a PhD degree in political science from Yale University and was a professor of political science at National Taiwan University. When President Ma was running for President for the first time in 2008, Jiang assisted in composing white papers for Ma. After Ma took office, Jiang was first appointed as Minister of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission under the Executive Yuan, before being promoted to Minister of Interior. Furthermore, on February 6th, 2012, he took up the position of Vice Premier._______________________
[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.
Mike, the student showed her email to Chomsky in which it clearly says, in English, what the sign says. Want Want has no legitimate grievance here. Rather Chomsky and Block have played right into their hands by panicking and making a lame excuse that they couldn't read Chinese. Unless the student faked the email exchange I can't see how Chomsky and Block could claim they were misled. I put the email in this post:
ReplyDeletehttp://lettersfromtaiwan.tumblr.com/post/41952152409/tsai-eng-meng-uses-his-want-want-china-times
The student translated the text for Chomsky before the picture was taken.
ReplyDelete"Chomsky and another academic contacted have clearly said they did not know that the words "China's black hand" were included in the sign. The student appears to have misled them."
ReplyDeleteOr... Chomsky is a fucking coward and a lying piece of shit to boot.
Here is the corresponding Taipei Times article.
ReplyDeleteMichael, your criticism of Lin Ting-an, the student who photographed Chomsky with the anti-media monopoly sign, is overly harsh. Lin has published the email she sent to Chomsky. All the available evidence suggests she acted in good faith. Chomsky himself says it was just a misunderstanding and he wasn't misled. Please focus on the real enemy here which is the China Times and the Want Want Group.
ReplyDeleteMichael, your criticism of Lin Ting-an, the student who photographed Chomsky with the anti-media monopoly sign, is overly harsh. Lin has published the email she sent to Chomsky. All the available evidence suggests she acted in good faith. Chomsky himself says it was just a misunderstanding and he wasn't misled. Please focus on the real enemy here which is the China Times and the Want Want Group.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but that's what yesterday's information said. Today's is different. Yay!
Michael
Thanks for printing an update on the Chomsky storm in a teacup.
ReplyDeleteJapan is doing more to drive China and Taiwan closer than any charm offensive by the PRC.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work Japan! Yay!
While a media monopoly is not desirable, isn't the whole issue a bit of a mountain out of a molehill situation? At its heart, it's a commercial transaction. I can certainly understand people being worried about media consolidation (in the US, it's gone from 50 companies owning most of the media in 1983 to 6 today), claims that press freedom are being eroded go a bit far. There was nothing stopping say, the Liberty Times group, buying Next Media if they had have wanted. In the same vein, there's nothing stopping a new player entering the market. If journalists really feel they don't have editorial freedom in their stories, then there'll be mass resignations from Want Want companies which will cause the quality of reporting to go down and subsequently, sales to go down making it less profitable for Tsai.
ReplyDeleteMark
REWRITE: ''Mike, the student showed her email to Chomsky in which it clearly says, in English, what the sign says. The student Miss Lin did not fake her email exchange but it is entirely possible and likely that at age 84, Chomsky did not read every single line of her email and two, most likely, at 84, Chomsky has a team of assistants who read his emails, he gets over 200 a day, and then tells him in synopsis whhat they about and then Chomsky says which ones to reply to and what to say. So most likely, Chomsky is not a liar like Ben Goren and others here said, and just an old man at age 84 who is really on Taiwan's side, and just forgetful old man, as you Mike said. So yes, let's all focus on the Want Want, that we don't want around anymore."
ReplyDeletesigned: email fanatic in UK
I secondo this POV: re "All the available evidence suggests she acted in good faith. Chomsky himself says it was just a misunderstanding and he wasn't misled. Please focus on the real enemy here which is the China Times and the Want Want Group.''
ReplyDeleteThis simply can't be true. It isn't possible because it contradicts everything we know about Christianity, what it is and what is was supposed to do.
ReplyDeletemark, there are three issues.
1. media concentration -- always bad
2. Tsai, heading up the purchase, is a rabidly pro-China businessman and wants to push China.
3. The China Times group has used its media leverage to attack and punish its opponents. Totally wrong.
4. Next does a valuable service as an investigator of corporate and political shenanigans. Tsai has already indicated that he will curb/terminate the investigations.
Seems to me there's a lot to object to here.
Michael
But I've seen a lot of pro-China whitewash stuff from Stonebridge ...
ReplyDeleteCheng Li very reasonably advises Obama ...
Liberthal is absolutely correct in noting that local territorial disputes have been sharpened in the year since outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for "America's Pacific Century". However, increased tension is an entirely predictable outcome of such a policy. Smaller powers naturally feel emboldened against China by the protection of the world's most advanced military.
Brendan P O'Reilly's and his ilk
just want America to kowtow to China and rest of Asia can become part of his beloved China.
Landing a person on Mars or establishing a permanent lunar colony would be a massive international propaganda boon, and may prove less costly than an arms race with Uncle Sam.
At least there was a laugh in all
his whitewash.
@anon 9:17 am
ReplyDelete"Japan is doing more to drive China and Taiwan closer than any charm offensive by the PRC."
Japan is doing more to drive China and the pony gang closer than any charm offensive by the PRC.
Leave me out of this soot, please. Sorry for my plagiarism.
HY