Tourism Bureau, HSR exchange of digitus impudicus

The Taipei Times reported that the Tourism Bureau and the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp engaged in some mutual removal of noses to spite faces over the cost of signs in HSR stations....

The Tourism Bureau's plan to make the high speed rail a selling point was met with nonchalance by the Taiwan High Speed Rail Co (THSRC), as the company has asked the bureau to pay NT$1 million (US$31,250) a year for promotional signboards featuring the nation's railway tours to be placed within the high speed rail stations.

Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) said yesterday that since the bureau did not have a sufficient budget to pay for the signboards, the bureau would work with the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) instead.

"It [the THSRC] is not tourist-friendly enough," Lai said, adding that the bureau's marketing strategy for the moment for the high speed rail was to focus on pre-arranged group tours rather than tours for individuals.

The government's goal is to get more Japanese tourists here -- and the 300 tourist reps from Japan for the Bureau's project to achieve this are coming free on the nation's airlines. Meanwhile yet another problem with the HSR is appearing:

The inadequate shuttle bus system around the high speed rail stations also became the target of criticism in the question and answer session in the legislature yesterday.

Legislators from central and southern counties have also complained that the high speed rail had caused domestic airline companies to reduce the number of daily flights.

Since the shuttle buses do not run as frequently as they should, travellers often have to ask family members to pick them up at the high speed rail stations, the legislators said.

I'd like to add that the schedule sucks. As far as I can see, there is no way I can board an HSR train heading south out of Taichung, and land in Tainan in time to make my 9:00 am class. Maybe I'm reading the schedule wrong....

Fortunately, despite the bad news, local writer Dan Bloom informs me that the HSR has done something good. Here's an email he sent me about the lack of logos or "Taiwan" on the HSR tickets (ordinarily I don't post attributed private emails, but I think this will be OK).

+++++++++++++

Michael
did you know that the orange HSR tickets do not....well, long story short.....
after i noticed the HSR tickets do not have logo or name of issuer on them,, i contacted the CEO of the HSR, Dr Ou, and he said YES HE WILL MAKE CHANGES ASAP.... letter from HSR office today.

three cheers for participatory democracy,...the current HSR tickets do not even say Taiwan high Speed Rail on them,, not even the word TAIWAN anywhere, and no logo. So i complained, gently. got action quickly. DONE DEAL

danny
================

Dear Dan Bloom,
After getting your Email I had also reported to Dr.OU , who is the CEO of our company.

Dr. Ou totally agree your suggestion what about the company LOGO on the HSR ticket,
and he immediately instructed marketing department to take action.
ASAP.

Thanks for your concern and please keep in touch.

Best Regards,
TAIWAN HSR

++++++++++++++++

Several people have written on this problem, I hear. Kudos to Danny for his initiative and success.

[Taiwan] [tourism] [High Speed Rail]

Daily Links, March 20, 2007

I can't believe anyone is still protesting this war either. It should have been over long ago, and its planners and supervisors turned over to the International Criminal Court for trial and punishment. The White House is simply impenetrable to reality....and soon our corrupt, incompetent, and anti-American leader will become the only world leader in modern history to lose three wars all at the same time when they strike Iran. Good-bye Taiwan, we hardly knew ya.....

I'm leading off with a WaPo article that the great blogger initechnology alerted me to, describing the desperate state of preparedness the Bush Administration has reduced our fine military to:

In earlier House testimony, Pace said the military, using the Navy, Air Force and reserves, could handle one of three major contingencies, involving North Korea or -- although he did not name them -- Iran or China. But, he said, "It will not be as precise as we would like, nor will it be on the timelines that we would prefer, because we would then, while engaged in one fight, have to reallocate resources and remobilize the Guard and reserves."

Pace said the unexpected demand for more troops in Iraq -- from the 10 brigades that commanders projected last year they would need by the end of 2006, to the 20 brigades scheduled to be there by June -- prompted him to recommend permanently adding 92,000 troops to the Army and Marine Corps, saying it would "make a large difference in our ability to be prepared for unforeseen contingencies."

Indeed, the recent increase of more than 32,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has pushed already severe readiness problems to what some officials and lawmakers consider a crisis point. Schoomaker said last week that sustaining the troop increase in Iraq beyond August would be "a challenge." The Marines' commandant, Gen. James T. Conway, expressed concern to defense reporters last week that it would bring the Marine Corps "right on the margin" of breaking the minimum time at home for Marines between combat tours. U.S. commanders in Iraq say they may need to keep troop levels elevated into early 2008.

The troop increase has also created an acute shortfall in the Army's equipment stored overseas -- known as "pre-positioned stock" -- which would be critical to outfit U.S. combat forces quickly should another conflict erupt, officials said.

The Army should have five full combat brigades' worth of such equipment: two stocks in Kuwait, one in South Korea, and two aboard ships in Guam and at the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean. But the Army had to empty the afloat stocks to support the troop increase in Iraq, and the Kuwait stocks are being used as units to rotate in and out of the country. Only the South Korea stock is close to complete, according to military and government officials.

"Without the pre-positioned stocks, we would not have been able to meet the surge requirement," Schoomaker said. "It will take us two years to rebuild those stocks. That's part of my concern about our strategic depth."

"The status of our Army prepositioned stock . . . is bothersome," Cody said last week.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers who received classified briefings last week on the stocks and overall Army readiness voiced alarm. "I'm deeply concerned," said Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who last week asked the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office to investigate the stocks "as a matter of vital importance to national defense."

Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz (D-Texas), chairman of the committee's readiness panel, said: "I have seen the classified-only readiness reports. And based on those reports, I believe that we as a nation are at risk of major failure, should our Army be called to deploy to an emerging threat."

Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), who attended the briefing, said, "We are at a crisis point across the board." And Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.), said, "This nation has got to replenish and fix what is soon going to be broken."

Equipment is also lacking among Army units in the United States, the vast majority of which are rated "not ready" by the Army, based on measures of available gear, training and personnel, according to senior military officers and government officials. Active-duty Army combat brigades in the United States face shortages of heavy, medium and light tactical vehicles such as Humvees; radios; night-vision goggles; and some weapons, Cody said.

The implications for Taiwan are obvious, right there in that first paragraph, the death knell for Taiwan if the US hits Iran. The US military cannot respond with the necessary speed to a crisis here. This will mean that Japan may have to become deeply involved in any crisis over Taiwan, and early. Will they?

Never mind that our budget cannot stand the strain of another major war (hey, I had a letter on this a couple of years ago in the Taipei Times). China need merely wait, and Bush will hand it the opportunity for regional, if not global hegemony, on a platter. It remains to be seen whether China can grasp it, but no there can be no question that Bush has been by far the most destructive President in US history.

Now that I've cheered everyone up with those happy thoughts, let's see what the Taiwan blogosphere has to offer:

Ilha Formosa talks about fascinating new tech that lets him see 3-D pics of his son still in the womb.

A local blogger had a great piece in the Taipei Times today on the CKS memorial renaming and illegal moves by the Taipei City Government to protect it.

the leaky pen comments on the PRC support for the Great White Hope, Ma Ying-jeou. What are they going to do when he loses and they have to face Hsieh?

Patrick talks about xenophobia and the Nazis on Taiwan.

Taoyuan Nights discusses Taiwanese cinemas, and points to a great review of 300. Also, he's searching for romance in a harsh world. You go, Graeme, I'd do the same thing if I was not married.

Prince Roy has a great post on Beijing and Beijing food. Long, informative, insightful, great pics. Obviously about three weeks worth of pent-up blogging energy went into it.

David on Formosa discusses the new local film Reflections.

Divining your way to political candidacy.

Hey! I see the sun! Gotta run!

[Taiwan]

ESWN on Marches in Taiwan and Hong Kong

The peripatetic China blogger ESWN remarks on marches in Taiwan and Hong Kong, claiming that there is a problem with explanations of low turnouts for pro-democracy marches in Hong Kong:

Yet, when the call went out for the people of Hong Kong to march for universal suffrage, not more than 5,000 people showed up (Comment 200703#053). There is an obvious problem here, but nobody seems to want to confront it honestly. Here is the quote from SCMP: James Sung Lap-kung, a political scientist at City University, said: "The low turnout might not necessarily mean Hong Kong people do not want universal suffrage. But it signals that they want the democrats to change their form of fighting for it."

I've highlighted Roland's comment there: the problem is "obvious." What is it?

What is he talking about? Why do the majority of the citizens who have said time and again that they want universal suffrage decline to turn out for a well-publicized demonstration march towards that goal? The organizers of these marches have never answered this question satisfactorily. Perhaps they do not know how to or perhaps they don't want to state the obvious.

One wonders -- what is the "obvious" thing going unstated? I ask this question because there were anti-war demonstrations in the US the other day that attracted only thousands, yet the majority of Americans oppose the Iraq war. Looking at ESWN's numbers of 5,000 marchers out of a pool of 4.2 million democracy supporters, that works out to 0.00119% of the pool present. Using a US population of 270 million, if at least 135 million oppose the war, we'd expect a turnout of at least 160,000 around the US yesterday. With just a 1% turnout, 1.35 million people should have clogged US cities yesterday. From what I can see, we were nowhere near either figure. Similarly, the Shih Ming-teh-led anti-Chen demonstrations here last year quickly peaked at a hundred thousand, and then fell to a few thousand on the weekends, much less on the weekdays, despite the millions of pro-KMT types in northern Taiwan and the widespread practice among the pro-China parties of paying demonstrators. Opposition to gay marriage is the majority position in the US, but demonstrations against it do not draw large numbers.

The sad fact is that low turnouts at demonstrations are a statistical norm for well-supported causes around the world. Perhaps ESWN should run some numbers for turnouts around the world and give us some comparisons. Maybe he'll turn up something that makes the turnout in Hong Kong an "obvious" problem, but perhaps also he might be surprised to find that what happened in Hong Kong is perfectly normal and the reasons for it incredibly prosaic.

Those are the reasons that I came up with. There may be others. so maybe these comments will generate the usual criticisms that I hate democracy and freedom. But what is your explanation as to why 5,000 people showed up for the march when public opinion polls showed that 60% of the population are for universal suffrage? If you can solve that puzzle, then you will get 60% of 7 million people = 4.2 million people to march for universal suffrage. How can that sort of people power be stopped?

How indeed?

UPDATE: I deleted comments similar to Raj's here at the Peking Duck. But he speaks for many thoughtful supporters of democracy around Asia:

Roland, did you ever consider that your thinly-veiled hostility towards democracy in HK and constant attempts to undermine it is the source of such comments? If you do actually believe in HK democracy (i.e. the end of the functional constituencies, 1 vote per person and only direct elections) maybe you could actually show that - just for once.

Dream on, Raj.

[Taiwan] [ESWN] [Hong Kong]

Caning for an At-Large Seat

One reason Taiwan's politics are filled with grandstanders is that grandstanding gets attention, which gets votes. Although the new legislative districting system is supposed to eliminate that, the tactic remains useful.

Thus the suggestion that sex offenders be caned that was mooted yesterday by a DPP femme legislator. I'm not going to comment on how stupid that was; I am sure the blogosphere will be filled with wonderful snark today. Note, however, that this was coupled with a threat against the DPP's political heavyweights (emphasis mine):

At a press conference in the legislature yesterday, DPP Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌) demanded that presidential contenders declare their stance toward the proposed amendment immediately.

She also called on lawmakers to back an amendment to the Sexual Assault Prevention Law (性侵害防治法) that includes the provision on caning.

She said she would publicize the names of presidential contenders who did not back the amendment, adding that she hoped it would pass cross-party negotiations this week.

Proposing provocative public policy? Penalizing Presidential pretenders? It's the P-word: Primary. Hsueh Ling is neither stupid nor fruitcake. As my pal Jason pointed out to me, the redoubtable A-gu listed her among the DPP hopefuls for an at-large seat (parties are granted at-large legislative seats proportional to their score in the election -- if a party wins 45% of the elected seats, they get 45% of the at-large seats). Moreover, half the at-large seats go to the Fair Sex. The DPP is making noises about settling the at-large seats by election somehow, instead of by backroom deals, the usual method.

Hence the publicity grab by Hsueh Ling -- she's positioning herself for the at-large primary by the tried and true method of running "against" the party elites while grabbing an issue that no one could object to, punishing rapists -- a classic "woman's" issue. Thus the Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again: it was thought that the new legislature would lead to fewer unseemly displays by legislators to get elected, but instead, the penchant for publicity stunts appears to have simply shifted to the competition for at-large seats. Hsueh is ahead of the curve, but look for more fun stuff to follow as we approach the election.

[Taiwan] [DPP] [2007 legislative election]

MAC's Wu to US, Lee to Canada

The media are awash with stories about the move of Taiwan's de facto ambassador to the US, David Lee, to Canada, to make way for Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu to take his place.

Following a report yesterday in the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper), Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) would replace David Lee (李大維) as the top representative to the US.

Wu is generally depicted as Chen's man:

Wu yesterday said he was confident he would be able to communicate the administration's intent to the US accurately, adding that his experience in handling cross-strait relations would be helpful in his new job.

"I think I am familiar with President Chen [Shui-bian's (陳水扁)] way of thinking, and I am able to interpret his ideas easily, precisely and directly," Wu said during a press conference yesterday afternoon.

"Cross-strait affairs have been the focal point of our diplomatic work, and having an understanding in this field is quite important when it comes to foreign affairs," Wu said.

Taiwan News reported the KMT protests over Wu's staunch pro-independence views:

On Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) confirmed that Wu, who has never held a foreign post, will replace David Lee (李大維), a career diplomat trained under the Kuomintang era, as the country's top envoy to the United States. Lee is expected to succeed Thomas Chen as Taiwan's representative in Canada. Both men will start their new job sometime next month.

Soon after the announcement was made, pan-blue lawmakers criticized the reshuffle, saying the move is part of the Democratic Progressive Party's ploy to "greenify" top government officials before President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) term expires in May 2008.

At a press conference yesterday, a group of KMT lawmakers said Wu, who has never been shy about his staunch pro-Taiwan independence stance, will turn Taiwan's U.S. representative office in Washington into a "Taiwan Independence Lobbying Center."

"Wu's appointment is mainly to help justify the president's 'four wants and one no' doctrine to the United States," said Lwo Shih-hsiung, hinting that the United States is fully aware of the DPP's strategy, but still gave consent to Wu's appointment as a trade off for the legislature's approval on the U.S. arms procurement deal.

Despite never having served in a diplomatic post, Wu regularly visits the US to brief officials on Taiwan-China relations, and is well known and accepted by them. He speaks fluent English -- always important, since so many US Taiwan experts do not speak good Chinese or Taiwanese -- and has been interviewed by US media, including major television networks. David Lee, the outgoing representative, is one of the many KMTers working in high positions under the Chen Administration. Friends of mine within MOFA have been saying for months that the Administration wanted Lee replaced, and some of the more embarrassing incidents over the years in which Lee has been left unapprised of major events involving Taiwan and the US have been intentionally handled to make him look bad, they've said. Nevertheless, Lee is above all a consummate diplomatic professional, and it remains to be seen whether Taiwan will benefit from this appointment.

[Taiwan] [US] [media] [Taiwan Independence] [DPP] (crossposted from Taiwan Matters)

Red Ants Turn on the Queen

Taiwan News reports that Shih Ming-te's supporters are suffering from a bad case of buyer's remorse:

The campaign supporters, better known as the "red shirt brigade," said at yesterday's press conference that the brigade will cut ties with Shih, and demanded Shih explain thoroughly the entire expenditure during the campaign activities which lasted for several months last year.

"Come out, Shih. Do not always hide yourself," the supporters said, adding that "Shih should never use the name of 'campaign leader' to issue news or make announcements any more."

The supporters said they did not take a penny when participating in the anti-corruption activities, but the headquarters listed NT$4 million in monthly payments for rally participants.

They demanded Shih to hand over the rest of the donation, or NT$20 million, and they will safeguard the money.

....

Supporters of the campaign last month staged a protest against Shih, doubting that Shih had not used the donation money to pay for his trip to the U.S. to deal with a liver problem.

Shih nearly redeemed himself in my eyes with this insightful crack:

They also requested Shih not to call them "jobless people who fool around."

Jobless people who fool around. Priceless. Thus all the earmarks of the typical Shih experience -- great publicity ending in accusations about money and attacks on erstwhile allies.


[Taiwan] [media] [Emile Sheng] [Shih Ming-teh]

Daily Links, March 18, 2007

What's the good news for today? Taiwan's legislature has a good chance of passing renewable energy legislation. Meanwhile the Taiwan blogosphere is full of energy that gets renewed every day:

Wild at Heart on raptor migration in Taiwan. Did you know Kenting is one of the best places in the world to see raptors on the move?

Memoirs on a rainy day compares the Hong Kong and Taipei Metros.

Tea Masters blogs on the thermal properties of silver teapots.

A local English tour guide discusses things to do in Taipei off the beaten track.

Enzo ciancia worries about the disappearance of mid-range brands from the local fashion market.

That's Impossible! discusses the DPP referendum on KMT assets.

The Foreigner says replacing Sun with a potted plant is a bad idea.

From the media: Expert Bates Gill argues that China's annexation drive will be peaceful in the medium term. The Economist gives a view on the new Japan-Australia defense links.Johhny Niehu. Danny Bloom writes about my website in the China Post.

SPECIAL: ESWN has a great post about how Taiwanese bloggers are engaging in activism on the Losheng Sanitorium demolition.

[Taiwan]

Ma Goes South?

Local media are reporting that once and future presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou is mulling relocation to southern Taiwan:

The ex-mayor made the disclosure following Chinese-language newspaper China Times' report yesterday that he plans to move to Kaohsiung soon in order to seek more support from voters in the south.

The report disclosed that Ma has planned to move to Kaohsiung in May or June to intensify his presidential campaign activities in southern counties, where candidates from pro-independence parties including the governing Democratic Progressive Party and Taiwan Solidarity Union have dominated major elections in the past.

The report continued that a pan-blue supporter has offered the ex-Kuomintang chairman a residence in downtown Kaohsiung as Ma's temporary accommodation during the presidential campaign. The landlord hopes Ma will improve his understanding and relations with the southern electorate during the temporary stay.

The report quoted an anonymous source in the end, however, that Ma and his supporters would decline to comment on plans at the moment, as the ex-mayor has not yet been formally selected as the KMT presidential candidate.

Ma announced to run for the 2008 presidential race on February 13, hours after Taipei prosecutors indicted him on charges of corruption resulting from his handling of a special fund.

The report came two weeks after Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who is also seen by the public as a potential KMT presidential nominee, made a comment that "People of central and southern Taiwan have told me that they will not vote in favor of a China-originated candidate" in the presidential election.

The Legislative Yuan leader explained that he made the remark as a warning to KMT members to watch out for the governing Democratic Progressive Party opponents' manipulation of an ethnic controversy, referring to a potential and protracted conflict of different ideologies and national identity between native Taiwanese and China-originated residents on the island. Wang, speaking during a magazine interview, cautioned that the ethnic issue would dominate the presidential campaign next year, according to his observation.

It is curious how each party is performing the mirror operation of the other: the KMT is trying to see how its strength at the local level can be transformed into national level success, while the DPP has not yet managed to parlay its powerful hand at the national level into local level success. It will be interesting to see whether he makes this move -- the action is in Taipei, and that's where his base of Deep Blues is.

[Taiwan] [KMT] [Ma Ying-jeou]

Economist: "Cultural Revolution" Provokes DPP

A recent article in The Economist on the renaming of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial in downtown Taipei entitled "Cultural Revolution" has sparked the ire of the DPP:

An article describing Taiwan's government's move to remove dictator Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) influence from the island in the latest edition of The Economist magazine gave rise to comment from some Democratic Progressive Party members yesterday because of it controversial headline "Cultural Revolution."

Removing the near-god image of Chiang Kai-Shek from society is part of Taiwan's effort to pursue democracy and the protection of human rights, said Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) when she commented on the magazine article. "No one should be deified anymore when Taiwan has moved forward as a democracy," Lu said.

The headline revealed Europeans' lack of understanding of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, commented DPP legislative whip Wang Tuoh (王拓). The DPP government promotes the moves including removing Chiang's statutes from military camps in an aim to dispel a common idolatry resulting from the former KMT's authoritarian rule, Wang defended. The magazine "has gone to far" by likening the DPP act to the infamous Chinese Cultural Revolution, he argued.

What did the article say?

CHIANG KAI-SHEK may once have been revered as a near-god on Taiwan, where he led his Chinese Nationalist regime after being defeated by Mao Zedong's Communists on the mainland in 1949. But almost a third of a century after his death, the memory of the old dictator is being effaced, with the removal of the generalissimo's statues and the renaming of many streets and even Taipei's international airport.

......

Chiang's legacy has never been properly examined in Taiwan. Arguments about the past are also fights over what the island should be in the future: a part of China (the view of Chiang Kai-shek and his political heirs), or an independent nation with a distinct, non-Chinese Taiwanese identity.

The airport was originally planned to be named Taipei-Taoyuan International Airport. That name has now been restored. It's good that the article correctly identifies one of the underlying conflicts, and much of the article is OK, but in the last paragraph it regrettably becomes unabashedly pro-China and pro-KMT:

DPP leaders may be politicking ahead of parliamentary elections in December, and presidential polls next March. But there is more at stake. By casting the 228 Incident as a clash between Taiwanese and KMT “outsiders”, the DPP has not only opened old wounds in Taiwan but also created anxiety in Beijing. China's Communists may have been at odds with the generalissimo. But they fear that Taiwan, by breaking with Chiang's legacy, may also be breaking away from the Chinese mainland.

The DPP did not "cast" 2-28 massacres as clashes between Taiwanese and KMT outsiders -- that's what they were. The KMT defined them that way, publicly and literally, when it moved onto the island, looted it extensively, removed Taiwanese from positions of authority, told the Taiwanese they were a people tainted by association with the Japanese, and then excluded them from public life. George Kerr's account of the event, Formosa Betrayed, is online, easily Googled.

The DPP did not "open old wounds" in Taiwan, but is trying to heal them by the application of democracy and history. In other post-authoritarian and post-colonial contexts, it is normal for the democracy side to rename monuments, to recover lost history, and to punish the perpetrators. Thanks to the longtime lobbying by the KMT, only when it comes to Taiwan does the international media question what has been an utterly normal process in dozens of nations from Spain to Italy to Eastern Europe to India.

The fact is that the there is no massive memorial to Hitler in Berlin, no massive memorial to Franco in Madrid, and no massive memorial to Mussolini in Rome. All over the world, in the post-colonial era, money, streets, parks, and other relics of the colonial era were renamed and remade. This is normal and to be expected -- except, for some reason, here in Taiwan, where the exercise of democracy is regularly negatively framed by media from democratic countries. Sad fact: in no report on the name rectification in the international media has the international media made any attempt to place it in an international context. Naturally, readers miss the significance of the moves.

What's really ironic is that the Economist that very same issue published an article on the repossession and reconstruction of history and identity in educational systems around the world -- but didn't mention Taiwan!

The article then makes that Beijing-centric turn that every one of us who watches the international media now recognizes as the norm:

...........but also created anxiety in Beijing. China's Communists may have been at odds with the generalissimo. But they fear that Taiwan, by breaking with Chiang's legacy, may also be breaking away from the Chinese mainland.

"Created anxiety in Beijing?" A very poor choice of words. Beijing is not "anxious" but "avaricious." Beijing gets upset whenever Taiwan exercises its democracy -- not only does that threaten China's drive to annex Taiwan, but it also sets a double example for Chinese culture: that democracy is possible, necessary, and right; and that authoritarian rulers may be held accountable, and will be remembered for the evil that they are. "Anxiety" does not drive the placement of missiles and the threats of military force and name-calling and accusations. That is plain unencumbered greed.

The last sentence "......may also be breaking away from the Chinese mainland" implies that Taiwan is part of China. It would be nice if reporters adopted a neutral position on the matter -- as Dan Bloom once put it, China is nobody's mainland but a few small islands off its coast. Taiwan isn't "breaking away" -- it isn't now and never was part of China. Time to stop the adoption of Beijing's point of view, folks. There were many ways that article could have ended, and given that China is always peeved at the DPP, little reason to dwell on China's reaction -- and certainly none to end with a historically erroneous and emotionally negative thought. Sad.

[Taiwan] [China] [Economist] [DPP] [Taiwan Independence] [KMT] [media] [name rectification]

Feel the Hate

[By the way, I still detest the worship of false gods, but my opinion of incense has changed.] -- foreign missionary in Taiwan

Last night a friend of mine called me over for a visit. She and her husband, New Zealanders widely known in the adoption community here in Taiwan, are looking for a girl to adopt, and have been stopping at orphanages up and down the island.

They've done private adoptions before, and would have no trouble locating a girl that way. But they have consciously chosen to go the more formal route, to blaze a trail for adoptive parents who come after them.

They've run into two problems. First, at many orphanages they only want Americans. Partly this is because the Americans have a well-developed set of adoption organizations that liaise with the local orphanage system.

Second, many orphanages are run by American style evangelicals. And they've been told, by at least two places, that they will not adopt children out to anyone except Born-again Christians. To demonstrate Born Again status, five letters of reference from Christians are needed, plus a letter from the pastor.

Congratulations, missionaries. You're a success.

[Taiwan]

Transcript of 2-28 Symposium at Brookings Now Online

Brookings has posted a transcript for the seminar on 2-28. This is from Richard Bush, a long time US government Taiwan expert, whose writing is always extremely well informed:

The subject of today's seminar is the February 28th Incident, commonly called 228, whose 60th anniversary will be observed next Wednesday. We wish to explore what 228 means, both retrospectively and prospectively. We are not interested in using the Incident as a weapon in the current political campaigns on Taiwan. That would be inconsistent with the educational missions of Brookings and FAPA. Moreover, there are larger issues at stake.

What do I mean when I say that the issues at stake are more significant than contemporary Taiwan politics? To begin my answer, let me go back to the mid-1990s when then-President Lee Teng-hui was emphasizing what Taiwan people had in common. In Chinese he used the phrase shengming gongtongti. In English translations of his speeches, he insisted on using the German sociological term, Gemeinschaft. In plain language he spoke of "a community based on a common experience." He spoke of Taiwan as, "our common homeland" and about a "collective consciousness." He spoke of "fifty years of a common destiny forged in fortune and misfortune have united us all into a closely bound and interdependent community."

Now, I happen to have a lot of respect for what Lee was trying to do here, for reasons that I will come back to. But there was an assumption behind these assertions of what Taiwan people had in common, wasn't there? It's almost a sleight of hand. Lee's assumption was that people on Taiwan actually believed that they had a sense of common destiny and collective consciousness. And part of that shared sense of the present and the future had to be a shared sense about the past.

The rest of it is online there.

[Taiwan]

Things seen while walking

Last week I visited the new Tz Chi Hospital in Tanzi, just north of Taichung.

Won't Sell Your House? OK: No front door

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The great blog initechnology passed me this pic and story link about what happens when you "win" a building dispute. Priceless.

[China]

Bible and Taiwanese Opera

A Taiwanese opera group has decided to stage the Jewish tale of Esther from the Christian Bible using Taiwanese opera.

A rare combination of traditional Taiwanese opera and orchestral music with the Bible story of Queen Esther will be presented by Yage Theater at Taipei City Hall's playhouse at 7:30 p.m. today and tomorrow.

Yage Theater and Everlight Chemical Industrial Co. have invited senior citizens from five elderly homes to join the general public for the performances.

The play, titled "Palace Walls", is a musical about Queen Esther presented in the form of Taiwanese opera accompanied by orchestral music.

"Palace Walls" will depict the invisible walls erected with greediness in people's hearts and minds under the mounting pressure of modern life.

Executives of Yage Theater said the performances will not only be presented in an entirely new form of intermingled Eastern and Western arts, but they will also shed light on how people may exercise self-reflection and help jointly build harmony in the society.

The audiences invited to the performances will include current residents of five elderly homes in Taipei City, including the Taipei Municipal Guang Chih Care Home and the Shilin Old People Care Center, as well as elderly institutions in Datong, Xinyi and Songshan districts.

Yage Theater expects the performances will help spread the love of God to all corners of society, including the unprivileged sections.

"Self-reflection" is something one is conventionally supposed to perform in Chinese society -- when Shih Ming-te was attacking Chen Shui-bian, he accused him of not engaging in self-reflection. The story of Esther is an old folktale, one that probably served as the basis for the tale of the death of John the Baptist in the earliest gospel, that of Mark.

[Taiwan]

France Once Again Demands EU Arm China

The French Foreign Minister calls for lifting the EU arms embargo on China:

France’s defense minister on Thursday renewed her government’s call to lift the EU arms embargo on China, denouncing opposition to the move as illogical.

Michele Alliot-Marie made the remarks in Japan, which with the U.S. has strongly protested French-led moves to end the embargo.

“There is a lack of logic in the position of some,” Alliot-Marie said before a meeting with her Japanese counterpart Fumio Kyuma.

She called it “paradoxical” to “maintain the embargo for political reasons while at the same time giving China the Olympics, which are supposed to go solely to countries that respect international rules.”

The French minister has apparently mistaken sports games for weapons. The reason it is perfectly logical to give China the Olympics is because sports don't kill people. Duh.

Alliot-Marie said lifting the embargo would not pose a threat, arguing that European and French rules on arms exports “are even stricter than the rules of the embargo.”

ROFL.

Japan and the U.S. have protested the move and voiced concern about China’s military spending, which is due to rise some 18 percent this year.

But Alliot-Marie said it was “normal” for China “to expand its defense equipment in light of the role that it is playing and will be drawn to play in the world due to its population and economic power.”

Still, Alliot-Marie said she understood Japanese concerns that China’s military spending was not transparent and would press Beijing on the matter when she visits.

There is a nasty symbolism to announcing in Tokyo that the EU should drop the arms embargo on China. This too after President Chen had just asked the EU not to drop the embargo.

“What is important is for China’s military power to be put to the service of peace,” said Alliot-Marie, starting a regional tour that will also take her to Beijing and Seoul.

I have often wondered what kind of mind can talk and think this way.

U.S. lawmakers have threatened to blacklist European firms if the embargo is lifted, saying that European weapons based on U.S. technology could theoretically be used against U.S. forces if Washington defends Taiwan.

Hey, no shit. This is followed by the familiar Renegade Province reference.

Momentum to lift the embargo has declined within the European Union mostly due to concern over tension between China and Taiwan, which Beijing considers a part of its territory awaiting reunification.

Fortunately this is all talk at the moment, as more rational and ethical minds in Europe are opposed to the sale of weapons to China.

[Taiwan] [China] [France] [EU]