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
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS