KMT-CCP alignment
In addition to plans to “re-educate” Taiwanese, Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye (盧沙野) had two other familiar talking points in his interview on France’s BFM TV.
Familiar because they were also raised by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) in an interview with Deutsche Welle in March.
First, Lu (and Hung) grieved that support for unification with China had dropped drastically in Taiwan over the past 20 years. They attributed this not to the end of the KMT’s authoritarian rule, and Taiwan’s home-grown and hard-fought democratization, but to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) “propaganda.”
Second, Lu lamented that the DPP uses “extremist propaganda” to “oppress” the KMT.
Hung, who recently visited “re-education camps” in China’s Xinjiang, must be pleased that her party has found an advocate in its erstwhile sworn rival, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an advocate that shares her contempt of the intelligence of Taiwanese voters, that is willing to air the KMT’s grievances on French television and even go as far as firing missiles over Taiwan to make a point.
Te Khai-su
Helsinki, Finland
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
Liberals have wasted no time in pointing to Karol Nawrocki’s lack of qualifications for his new job as president of Poland. He has never previously held political office. He won by the narrowest of margins, with 50.9 percent of the vote. However, Nawrocki possesses the one qualification that many national populists value above all other: a taste for physical strength laced with violence. Nawrocki is a former boxer who still likes to go a few rounds. He is also such an enthusiastic soccer supporter that he reportedly got the logos of his two favorite teams — Chelsea and Lechia Gdansk —
RSS