From the NYTimes Sidelined at the UN, A Frustrated Taiwan Presses On
The diplomatic maneuverings that takes place upstairs are less fruitful. The election in January of Tsai Ing-wen, who is Taiwan’s first female president and whose Democratic Progressive Party has in the past flirted with independence, is sending a chill through cross-strait relations. Under her predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang, Taiwan and China signed a series of agreements that included increased trade, direct flights and a surge of mainland tourists that buoyed the Taiwanese economy.When you read the NY Times piece on Taiwan's UN efforts, and you see this same garbage, repeated ad nauseum... according to the NYTimes, it was Tsai's election that caused the chill, not Beijing's decision to cut off relations and reduce group tourists. Indeed -- Taiwan has not "chilled", only Beijing has chilled.
Despite the wealth of information on the internet, the last sentence of that paragraph goes on, zombie-like, to inform us of the greatness of Ma Ying-jeou's economic sellout program. *sigh*
I probably don't have to tell you that the NYTimes writer is their Beijing correspondent. Nobody gets Taiwan wrong like Beijing correspondents...
Meanwhile contrast Andrew Jacobs' regurgitation of this zombie nonsense with the attitude in the 1996 Nightline piece in the video above on the Taiwan elections. China is clearly recognized as the problem. Taiwan is referred to as a country. Pro-Taiwan analysts like Rick Fisher and Syd Goldsmith speak. A senior diplomat is permitted to explain that one China acquiescence is just noise. Totally different media attitude.
O and special joy: Lien Chan calls for UN entry. ROFL.
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Although certainly agreeing with your perspective on typical mainstream press coverage of Taiwan in more general terms, I think you're reading a little too much into this one. To say that the election result threw a chill on cross-strait relations is quite true. You are reading an implication into the article based on your own perspective that its author may not have intended, i.e., that Taiwan is to "blame" for the chill. It would be equally plausible for a reader to conclude that Taiwan voters intended no "slight" in voting this way. It is your interpretation of the unspoken that you are taking issue iwth.
ReplyDeleteYou are reading an implication into the article based on your own perspective that its author may not have intended, i.e., that Taiwan is to "blame" for the chill
ReplyDeleteI can't read the author's mind, and the choice you offer is that the author is either a dupe of the current propaganda frame that favors China, or too lazy/stupid to properly depict reality.
I will let you figure that one out.