Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Joanna Lei (
The broadside came after the American Forces Press Service, a US Department of Defense publication, ran stories on its Web site last weekend on the DPP's planned plebiscite -- for entering the UN as "Taiwan" -- as an "independence" referendum.
If either had bothered to read to the end of the paragraph then they could have saved their breath. In their attempts to highlight the reference to the KMT's dreaded "independence," they failed to notice -- or deliberately overlooked -- the very end of the same sentence, where the author paraphrased US President George W. Bush as referring to Taiwan as an "island nation."
A strange choice of words, this, considering it has been just a few weeks since Dennis Wilder, a top Bush adviser and senior director for East Asian affairs at the National Security Council, stated categorically that the US does not view Taiwan (or the Republic of China) as a state.
Nevertheless, Taiwan's representatives in the US immediately contacted their Washington counterparts for clarification and, as if by magic, the offending references were promptly corrected the following day by the Pentagon, which conceded that the original wording was "inaccurate."
Thus the true culprit in this instance was revealed: careless reporting.
As anyone involved in journalism is aware, reporting on cross-strait affairs can be a minefield. It is a forum where adding a stray "re" to the front of "unification" can mean trouble.
Yet time and again we see the same erroneous and sensational reporting on Taiwan-China affairs. It is easy to lose count of the number of times one sees the phrase: "The US is obligated to come to Taiwan's aid in the event of a Chinese invasion" or variations on this theme in international wire copy, despite the fact that it is incorrect.
Those with limited knowledge of nuances and terminology used in cross-strait affairs can get into all kinds of trouble with just one or two inaccurate words or phrases.
Jim Garamone, the offender in this case, is an experienced reporter who, according to his online biography, has covered defense issues since 1976. Whether he has had much experience in reporting on cross-strait affairs is not clear. But one thing is for sure: Garamone has had a week to remember the fallout from this minor fuss -- and a crash course in Cross-Strait Terminology 101 to boot. It is quite safe to say that he will not make the same mistakes again.
This highlights the pressure that reporters who work for responsible news organizations must endure. Their work is held up to the highest standards of scrutiny, and any incorrect information or falsehoods are liable to have serious consequences and are usually immediately brought to light.
Unfortunately, Taiwanese reporters and politicians are not subject to the same stringent standards as their US counterparts. While Garamone's errors were quickly highlighted and changed, the same cannot be said about the KMT legislators who used this "inaccurate" report to make political capital.
So far there have been no reports of Lei and Shuai holding a press conference to retract their comments and even apologize. But why should we expect contrition? Their mission to undermine a democratic referendum process and turn public opinion against the government has been accomplished and for that they make no apology.
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS