Chinese state media on Tuesday criticized US talk show host John Oliver for a satirical sketch that offered a brief history of Taiwan and explained its political situation.
That a US talk show that delivers its message through satire discussed Taiwan highlights the ridiculous nature of Taiwan’s plight — in which Taiwanese cannot represent themselves at international organizations due to pressure from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), despite the nation never having been ruled by the PRC.
In an op-ed, the Global Times said that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are damaging the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, claiming it was a situation that most Taiwanese want to maintain. It also accused the US of pushing “autocracy and ideological values” in the Indo-Pacific region.
Clearly the piece was written for English-language speakers living in China where access to international media is limited, not for a global audience that has seen China send dozens of warplanes near Taiwan over the past several months without any provocation. It also fails to mention how the PRC has been threatening Southeast Asian nations over the past several years by militarizing the South China Sea.
It is understandable that Chinese state media would twist the facts, even in English. What is perhaps even more telling is that Beijing felt the need to respond at all to a satirical sketch, highlighting its fragility in the face of facts and the importance it places in maintaining its disinformation campaign.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is threatened by anything that challenges its official stance, which is vastly different from the situation in Taiwan. The CCP is unable to fathom the idea of free thought and dissent, which is highlighted in the Global Times, when it cites as a failure of Taiwan’s democracy fighting in the legislature in November last year over US pork imports.
The piece argued that Tsai decided to import US pork despite opposition, and that she threatened the health of Taiwanese. This demonstrates the CCP’s lack of understanding about how such decisions are made in a democracy, and overlooks that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) opposition to the policy is acceptable only because Taiwan is a democracy. The KMT is bringing the issue to a referendum in December, when the public is to vote on whether to reverse the decision. Perhaps the CCP could give examples of when its policies were challenged, or when its people voted on government policy.
The Chinese government would have been better off not responding at all to Oliver’s sketch. In doing so, it emphasized its confusion over facts, the illegitimacy of its position and its weakness in the face of free speech.
The growing support for Taiwan internationally shows that as people around the world experience Chinese aggression themselves, they are more aware of Taiwan’s plight and the importance of supporting it. The most powerful examples of this are Taiwan’s friends in the Czech Republic, France and elsewhere who were personally threatened by China for simply visiting Taiwan.
Even in the non-political arena, Taiwanese diver Mia Hou (侯一明) had her flag removed during a competition in Cyprus, which prompted divers from 11 other countries to remove their own flags in solidarity.
China’s baseless response to Oliver’s truthful and entertaining take on Taiwan highlights the CCP’s weakness and vulnerability. The DPP and other parties that have Taiwan’s best interests in mind should encourage more international programs to discuss the country’s plight.
The government and local industries breathed a sigh of relief after Shin Kong Life Insurance Co last week said it would relinquish surface rights for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) to Nvidia Corp. The US chip-design giant’s plan to expand its local presence will be crucial for Taiwan to safeguard its core role in the global artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and to advance the nation’s AI development. The land in dispute is owned by the Taipei City Government, which in 2021 sold the rights to develop and use the two plots of land, codenamed T17 and T18, to the
Taiwan’s first case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed on Tuesday evening at a hog farm in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲), trigging nationwide emergency measures and stripping Taiwan of its status as the only Asian country free of classical swine fever, ASF and foot-and-mouth disease, a certification it received on May 29. The government on Wednesday set up a Central Emergency Operations Center in Taichung and instituted an immediate five-day ban on transporting and slaughtering hogs, and on feeding pigs kitchen waste. The ban was later extended to 15 days, to account for the incubation period of the virus
The ceasefire in the Middle East is a rare cause for celebration in that war-torn region. Hamas has released all of the living hostages it captured on Oct. 7, 2023, regular combat operations have ceased, and Israel has drawn closer to its Arab neighbors. Israel, with crucial support from the United States, has achieved all of this despite concerted efforts from the forces of darkness to prevent it. Hamas, of course, is a longtime client of Iran, which in turn is a client of China. Two years ago, when Hamas invaded Israel — killing 1,200, kidnapping 251, and brutalizing countless others
Art and cultural events are key for a city’s cultivation of soft power and international image, and how politicians engage with them often defines their success. Representative to Austria Liu Suan-yung’s (劉玄詠) conducting performance and Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen’s (盧秀燕) show of drumming and the Tainan Jazz Festival demonstrate different outcomes when politics meet culture. While a thoughtful and professional engagement can heighten an event’s status and cultural value, indulging in political theater runs the risk of undermining trust and its reception. During a National Day reception celebration in Austria on Oct. 8, Liu, who was formerly director of the
RSS