Now that somewhat-direct Lunar New Year charter flights have been approved by Taiwan and China, the next "meat and potatoes" issue that must be dealt with in cross-strait relations is whether to allow large numbers of Chinese tourists into Taiwan.
American Institute in Taiwan Director Douglas Paal alluded to this in his speech to the annual general meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday: "We are encouraged by signs of progress toward cross-strait charter flights and the further opening of Taiwan to tourists from [China]. These measures promise important economic benefits for both sides."
Experts from the tourism industry feel that they will benefit greatly by having hordes of Chinese tourists swarming through Taroko Gorge and scuttling around Yangmingshan. And maybe they will. But surely the more important issue to be addressed is whether this influx of tourists will benefit Taiwan's continued survival as a de facto independent nation.
It may be that having erstwhile communists enjoy a little capitalism and freewheeling democracy will be a positive thing -- surely it can not hurt to temporarily remove them from their imposed shell of state control. A few hours watching cable news coverage, perusing local newspapers, or arguing politics with a taxi driver will do more to shape a person's opinion of Taiwan than years of programming by Xinhua.
However, regardless of a person's views toward China, whether one supports unification or independence, any Taiwanese who has traveled to China knows that, for all of the "shared language and culture," the two countries could hardly be more different. After all, one is a developed, freedom-loving democracy, and the other is, well, not.
Even the most die-hard unificationist, when traveling abroad, takes care to let people know that they are from Taiwan, not China. Even taishang, Taiwanese businesspeople operating in the "mainland," mostly live in enclaves, isolated from their counterparts on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.
It isn't that Taiwanese have a problem with China or their Chinese heritage necessarily. It's just that the modern histories of the two countries have diverged so dramatically that people on either side really have little understanding of the other society.
However, this does not mean that the two sides have nothing to gain from interacting; indeed, in many ways both countries are becoming more and more interdependent.
Therefore, Chinese tourists should be welcomed. It is unlikely that the possible threat of Fifth Columnists will greatly affect the security of this country, which after all, is already within striking range of hundreds of Chinese missiles and aircraft.
But it will not be easy to deal with the large influx of Chinese. There are cultural issues to which Taiwan should be sensitive.
For this reason, and in the spirit of cross-strait reconciliation, there are a number of phrases which should not be employed when speaking to tourists from China. Failure to not say these things will only exacerbate the mutual misunderstanding and cultural rift that exists between the two countries.
Therefore, do not -- under any circumstances -- say any of the following 10 phrases to Chinese tourists: One, noodles, paper, gunpowder. What have you done for us lately? Two, one-child policy plus patriarchal society equals no women. Three, 5,000 years of civilization, and all you have to offer us is pandas? Four, welcome to Taiwan. Please don't spit. Five, Simplified characters for simple people. Six, Mr. Hu, tear down that wall! Seven, our opposition leaders get to have dinner with your president, but your opposition leaders get shot. Eight, our Chinese culture is better than yours. Nine, my dad owns the factory your dad works in. Or finally: We were going to "retake the mainland," until we went there.
Thus, we can maintain cross-strait harmony.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has prioritized modernizing the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to rival the US military, with many experts believing he would not act on Taiwan until the PLA is fully prepared to confront US forces. At the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress in 2022, Xi emphasized accelerating this modernization, setting 2027 — the PLA’s centennial — as the new target, replacing the previous 2035 goal. US intelligence agencies said that Xi has directed the PLA to be ready for a potential invasion of Taiwan by 2027, although no decision on launching an attack had been made. Whether
A chip made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) was found on a Huawei Technologies Co artificial intelligence (AI) processor, indicating a possible breach of US export restrictions that have been in place since 2019 on sensitive tech to the Chinese firm and others. The incident has triggered significant concern in the IT industry, as it appears that proxy buyers are acting on behalf of restricted Chinese companies to bypass the US rules, which are intended to protect its national security. Canada-based research firm TechInsights conducted a die analysis of the Huawei Ascend 910B AI Trainer, releasing its findings on Oct.
In honor of President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday, my longtime friend and colleague John Tkacik wrote an excellent op-ed reassessing Carter’s derecognition of Taipei. But I would like to add my own thoughts on this often-misunderstood president. During Carter’s single term as president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, despite numerous foreign policy and domestic challenges, he is widely recognized for brokering the historic 1978 Camp David Accords that ended the state of war between Egypt and Israel after more than three decades of hostilities. It is considered one of the most significant diplomatic achievements of the 20th century.
In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, titled “The Upside on Uncertainty in Taiwan,” Johns Hopkins University professor James B. Steinberg makes the argument that the concept of strategic ambiguity has kept a tenuous peace across the Taiwan Strait. In his piece, Steinberg is primarily countering the arguments of Tufts University professor Sulmaan Wasif Khan, who in his thought-provoking new book The Struggle for Taiwan does some excellent out-of-the-box thinking looking at US policy toward Taiwan from 1943 on, and doing some fascinating “what if?” exercises. Reading through Steinberg’s comments, and just starting to read Khan’s book, we could already sense that
RSS