CNN hosts President Ma spouting in fine 19th century blood and soil mode:
All our efforts in Taiwan have aimed at showing ethnic Chinese societies around the world that the imported concept of democracy can take root, germinate, and grow into a big tree on purely ethnic Chinese soil."Crap from beginning to end: all the KMT efforts were to fight and suppress democratic development, and at the other end, "purely ethnic Chinese soil"?? No wonder the man has 14% approval ratings even from media outlets friendly to his party. Tomorrow there will be a media flap, no biggie. It must be liberating for him, being so unpopular, he can say anything he wants, since things can't get worse.
Well... here's another piece noting how Hong Kong has put the nail in the coffin of 1C2S, from Gary Schmitt over at AEI:
The reality is that Taiwan’s underlying skepticism about unification with China under any model has been readily apparent for anyone who took the time to keep track of what the Taiwanese people were saying as opposed to focusing on some imaginary diplomatic breakthrough that the acolytes of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski were dreaming of, hoping for. Washington needs to come to terms with the point that democratic Taiwan is not headed toward some form of association with the PRC and should build policies that reflects that point.These two observations, that people in decision-making positions dream of a "breakthrough" and that Washington needs to adjust its policies to reality, have appeared in a couple of pieces lately, and also in comments I've heard from people who know what's going on in Washington. I think we will have to wait until the next Administration to see that... and we won't see it, because the same crew will be running foreign policy in DC, still searching for a way to sell Taiwan to China to make a breakthrough...
Shannon Tiezzi in the Diplomat writes that Xi is extending an olive branch in the form of economic relations. I wish commentators would wake up on that one. Economic exchange, as the Chinese themselves have said many times, is just annexation by another means. Emphasizing economic exchanges is not an olive branch.
I've linked to Ketagalan Media below. They've really built something good over there, and it regularly delivers interesting stuff. And I'm not saying that just because they let my lowly self publish there.
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Daily Links:
- Awesome: Ben on Ko's platform
- Lonely Planet has Taiwan as a best value destination for 2015
- Taiwan army officer who publicly supported independence is disciplined. KMT fighting a rearguard action...
- Taichung mayor candidate Lin Jia-lung interviewed
- Anzus and possible conflict in the East China Sea
- US, Italy helping Taiwan to build mine clearing ships
- Missed this: Mid-Oct TVBS poll has Ma approval at 13%.
- Ketagalan media: Rule of Law in HKK, Taiwan, and China
- Ketagalan media: Crafting a better Taiwan Democracy
- June Dreyer at Yale on the delusions of Chinese peacefulness and neutral arbiter role
- Hilarious: If Asian girls hit on White Guys like white guys hit on Asian girls.
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2 comments:
"Military personnel who support Taiwanese independence should leave the armed forces because they vowed to defend the R.O.C. upon joining the military, Lin said."
Yikes! This is frightening!
I knew it was complicated, of course, but what kind of contorted logic are these people operating on?
With this loopy logic, who or what do they think they are defending Taiwan/ROC from? The DPP?
What nation do they consider most likely to blockade or invade Taiwan/ROC? Japan?
Precisely how do they define a blockade or invasion? Because when it happens, these people will immediately begin obfuscating, and you will begin hearing press conferences where the main topic will be "When is a blockade not really a blockade?"
Obviously, they see their main role as defending the KMT-- not defending Taiwan, sovereignty, democracy, etc.
If they can negotiate or manage a PRC takeover in which the KMT is allowed to remain intact (and in control), I am convinced that would be an acceptable outcome for them. People just have to wait and see how this will all be justified ideologically.
As long as all military units are following orders from the top, I doubt there will be any shots fired when the PRC does finally decide to take over.
"Hilarious: If Asian girls hit on White Guys like white guys hit on Asian girls."
I watched that last night though I must admit I didn't expect it to be actually funny. It wasn't. It was just the typically neurotic American agitprop I expected it to be.
For example I genuinely don't think anyone (barring the odd weirdo) would be "hitting on"* a girl because she is Asian as opposed to because she is naturally attractive. People only pretend to laugh at politically-charged "comedy" like that because they're worried about what others will say if they don't.
*Awful phrase.
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