With the 2006 FIFA World Cup having come to a close, the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing will be the next global event to take center stage.
When dealing with international athletic competitions, the Cabinet must establish a rapid response unit spanning the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mainland Affairs Council.
I have a number of observations to make about how China is going to take advantage of its hosting of the Olympics to prevent Taiwan from asserting its sovereignty.
First, since Hong Kong's reversion to China in 1997, Beijing has strengthened its "united front" strategy against Taiwan.
Take Chinese television for example: China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has ordered that "Taiwan, China" be displayed when the names of Taiwanese actors or actresses are displayed on Taiwanese TV shows broadcast in China.
In addition, in 2003, China's Ministry of Public Security also started granting Taiwanese citizens Chinese identification cards and passports in an attempt to negate the legitimacy of documents issued by the Taiwanese government.
NEGATIVE COVERAGE
Second, the Chinese media present only very negative coverage of the democratization of Taiwan, branding demonstrations aimed at protecting Taiwan's democracy as a beast endangering social stability and the nation's prosperity.
In this regard, Beijing is not selective about the targets of its mockery, lashing out at both the pan-green and pan-blue camps, the president and borough chiefs, and using defamation and satire to mislead the Chinese people while ignoring their aspirations to democracy and human rights.
Taiwan's temporary economic slump following its economic transformation over the past few years is described as a sign that Taiwan's growing economic reliance on China is unavoidable, that blood is thicker than water and that any anti-China/pro-Taiwan sentiment is doomed.
Third, "Chinese Taipei" is the name that Taiwan has used in past olympic games. To speed up the annexation of Taiwan and unify the ideological education of its people, China has for many years used the epithet "the team from Taipei, China" in sports broadcasts and even included Taiwanese gold medals in the national total medal count for China.
When Taiwan's Olympic team enters the stadium during the 2008 Olympic Games, Chinese sports reporters will call Taiwan's Olympic delegation "the team from Taipei, China" or declare that Taiwan is part of China. How should Taiwan respond to a situation like this?
EVENTFUL
Fourth, 2008 will be an eventful year. In March, prior to the Olympic Games in Beijing in July, Taiwan will hold its next presidential election, and the new president will take office in May.
When the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was in power, Taiwan's representative to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Shirley Kuo (
If "Chinese Taipei" is described as the "team from Taipei, China" at the 2008 Olympic Games, I hope that Taiwanese people and the media will not equate "Taiwan, China" with "the Republic of China on Taiwan."
Tsai Cheng-chung is a political commentator in Taipei.
Translated by Daniel Cheng
In the first year of his second term, US President Donald Trump continued to shake the foundations of the liberal international order to realize his “America first” policy. However, amid an atmosphere of uncertainty and unpredictability, the Trump administration brought some clarity to its policy toward Taiwan. As expected, bilateral trade emerged as a major priority for the new Trump administration. To secure a favorable trade deal with Taiwan, it adopted a two-pronged strategy: First, Trump accused Taiwan of “stealing” chip business from the US, indicating that if Taipei did not address Washington’s concerns in this strategic sector, it could revisit its Taiwan
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) challenges and ignores the international rules-based order by violating Taiwanese airspace using a high-flying drone: This incident is a multi-layered challenge, including a lawfare challenge against the First Island Chain, the US, and the world. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) defines lawfare as “controlling the enemy through the law or using the law to constrain the enemy.” Chen Yu-cheng (陳育正), an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies, at Taiwan’s Fu Hsing Kang College (National Defense University), argues the PLA uses lawfare to create a precedent and a new de facto legal
The stocks of rare earth companies soared on Monday following news that the Trump administration had taken a 10 percent stake in Oklahoma mining and magnet company USA Rare Earth Inc. Such is the visible benefit enjoyed by the growing number of firms that count Uncle Sam as a shareholder. Yet recent events surrounding perhaps what is the most well-known state-picked champion, Intel Corp, exposed a major unseen cost of the federal government’s unprecedented intervention in private business: the distortion of capital markets that have underpinned US growth and innovation since its founding. Prior to Intel’s Jan. 22 call with analysts
Chile has elected a new government that has the opportunity to take a fresh look at some key aspects of foreign economic policy, mainly a greater focus on Asia, including Taiwan. Still, in the great scheme of things, Chile is a small nation in Latin America, compared with giants such as Brazil and Mexico, or other major markets such as Colombia and Argentina. So why should Taiwan pay much attention to the new administration? Because the victory of Chilean president-elect Jose Antonio Kast, a right-of-center politician, can be seen as confirming that the continent is undergoing one of its periodic political shifts,
RSS