I went to a conference on Saturday hosted by the Taiwan Brain Trust and Project 2049. Bruce Jacobs spoke, and remarked on how the Ma Administration's hysterical reaction to the Korean FTA was part of its strategy to isolate Taiwan from neighbors which might otherwise be in solidarity with it.
To that one could add so many other instances -- the Senkakus with Japan, the entire South China Sea, whose nations otherwise might be in solidarity with Taiwan, the poacher killed in the Philippines by the Coast Guard, and the beef issue with the US. Ma's whole foreign policy approach is based on isolating Taiwan in order to ensure the only answer to the foreign policy question of "Which nation is our friend?" is "China".
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Daily Links:
- Russia sells S-400 missiles to China, hurting Taiwan's ability to resist annexation.
- 1C2S is finished: CPI Blog
- Taiwan is canary in coal mine of cyber warfare and J Michael Cole: Where the Dragon Honed It's Claws on cyberspying
- SOAS Roundtable on the elections Dec 11
- How social media helped Ko win
- Hep A cluster linked to raw oysters/clams
- A medical parole for Chen? Don't miss the comments.
- Taiwan becomes Hollywood film hub
- Ma's resignation as KMT Chair affects Wang Jin-pyng's case for KMT membership.
- Taiwanese tourism thinkers do not know anything about Taiwan's attractions. Chung-Hua Institution "expert" speaks... OMG No Disneyland. Without that, how can we pull in tourists? *sigh*
- China Post almost rational on loss.
- Still more election analysis: from Brookings by NTU poli sci prof
- Still more election analysis: longtime Taiwan observer Mark Harrison
- Still more election analysis: DPP ascendancy won't release Taiwan from China's grip.
- Still more election analysis: It was the KMT's crony capitalism.
- I know it's not right, but when I watch videos like this one of famous Alpine climbs, it makes me chuckle. He says at one point, after ripping up 7% grades, that he's finally getting a chance to take a breather on the 2% grades. Dude, in Taiwan, a 7% grade IS a breather. Of course, that guy is a monster, while I go up them really slow....
[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!
Michael, you've done a lot of good work with your posts and links recently, but I feel you're very mistaken to attribute Taiwan's poor relations with neighboring countries to the Ma administration.
ReplyDeleteTaiwanese in general have a poor attitude to their neighbors such as rivalry with South Korea and arrogance towards Philippines and Southeast Asia. The DPP would have acted the same if they were in power with the Philippine coast guard killing incident.
That said you are mostly right in your consistent criticism of China and the internationl media coverage of Taiwan-China relations.
CP