Festival office chief Nobushige Toshima told the Central News Agency (CNA) in a telephone interview that the Taiwanese delegation was among the distinguished guests invited by the festival organization while the Chinese were not.Ouch. That's about as subtle as a kick in the head. A good question posted elsewhere was why they simply couldn't have just let the Chinese walk out and allow the Taiwanese to walk the green carpet as planned. The answer seems to be in the strategy of the Chinese delegation - namely to disrupt the ability of the Taiwanese to walk the green carpet per se:
During the argument, Jiang threatened the committee with an ultimatum that if the name issue were not resolved in China’s favor within 10 minutes, the Chinese delegation would withdraw from the festival and contemplate never attending again.
According to an individual familiar with the film festival, Jiang’s behavior left the committee feeling “used” as his own self-promoting tool. Although the Chinese delegation was at fault, the committee’s hands were tied, the source said.
He added that Jiang participated in the film festival last year but did not make the same request. If Jiang had made the demand one week ahead of the event, the organizer would have had time to come up with a solution, but what Jiang did caught everyone by surprise.
The argument lasted over 90 minutes, causing both delegations to miss their grand entrances.Ok. So if we believe this account we can suspect that Jiang's actions were deliberate sabotage. Meanwhile, in Taiwan Premier Wu tried to walk a middle path between condeming the action and trying to downplay the incident so it doesn't harm 'mutual trust and goodwill' (tm KMT-CCP):
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday gave conditional (only conditional?) backing to a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus proposal to declare Chinese official Jiang Ping (江平) persona non grata because of his actions at the Tokyo International Film Festival over the weekened.
“If [Jiang] continues to maintain this attitude (note the use of 'continues' e.g if we hear nothing from him from now on the incident and his rude behaviour will be forgotten), it would mean that he is extremely unfriendly to Taiwan. In that case, it goes without saying the legislature could declare him persona non grata,” (Not that it would prevent him from coming to Taiwan on personal invitation as a 'tourist')
Lai asked Wu if he agreed with Executive Yuan spokesman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), who termed the incident an “isolated case,” but separated Jiang from Chinese officialdom. (oh Johnny, you are a card. Tell me again, are you a member of the KMT or CCP or both?)
Wu said he disagreed on Lai’s “white cop, bad cop game” characterization, but he said the incident could not be considered an isolated one without further observation, including how China’s Taiwan Affairs Office handles the issue. (Good on Wu but he really couldn't have argued that it was an isolated case when there are literally hundreds of similar cases in the last 10 years - cases that haven't stopped even though Ma claims Taiwan and China have been expressing goodwill towards each other for the last two years)
Chiang’s judgement that the Chinese authorities were not involved in the contretempts was “correct,” Wu said. (I spoke too soon - Wu really expects Taiwanese to believe that Jiang was acting alone? This is laughable)
“China’s population is more than 1.3 billion and it has a huge bureaucracy. So far, only Mr Jiang was so rude [to Taiwan],” Wu said, adding that the Presidential Office had urged China to take remedial measures and that he himself had criticized Jiang over his behavior. (oh dear oh dear. Now Wu really soils the bedsheets in saying only Jiang was rude to Taiwan. If his behaviour can be classified as 'rude' then there's a whole host of other incidents which are also rude too - everyone involved in each one of those incidents were equally isolated cases? please....)
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said yesterday that the ministry “would make proper, reasonable arrangements” concerning Taiwan’s participation in international events on the condition that such participation would not create the impression of “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan.” (Mr Ma seems to think that it is China's role to determine Taiwan's participation in international events yet Mr Ma is not a member of the Taiwanese Government, he is not elected or accountable and is not even a citizen of Taiwan or the ROC. But then, in Taiwan we have a china-obsessed President who claims to rule over China as well as Taiwan so I guess hyperbolic and wishful declarations of sovereign decision making power in areas outside their jurisdiction is par for the course for both the KMT and CCP)
When asked to comment last night on Ma’s statement, Wu said he needed to read a full transcript first. (cop-out and delaying strategy)
“I have been thinking that both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait have been through a hard time turning from an attitude of confrontation to developing mutual prosperity … Why let one or two persons [spoil the relationship?]” Wu said. “We need to get back on course to continue accumulating goodwill and refrain from damaging the mutual trust built up so far.” (one or two persons? try the entire Chinese bureaucracy and government. And remind me again about the substance of that supposed goodwill and mutual trust built up so far. Aside from essentially bribes to farmers and businesses in the form of visits tied into mass purchase orders, what other goodwill and mutual trust has their been on the Chinese side? This is all smoke and mirrors - it is a propaganda trick to state something often enough and long enough and everyone will think its true)
Pathetic doesn't quite sum it all up.
