- Another Open Letter from academics warning Ma to preserve democracy.
- Looking through the looking glass on the chimerical falsity of Ma's non-operable 'One China with different interpretations'.
- ECFA? No thanks.
- ROC centennial - reifying the ROC and downplaying Taiwan: the appropriation of Taiwanese history to serve KMT political goals. Key quotes:
However, the president and once again KMT chairman promptly put a cap on the significance of Taiwan's democracy, which developed in resistance to four decades of KMT martial law rule, by stressing that "Taiwan is leading the development of freedom, democracy and liberalization within the Chinese community."
Moreover, Ma emphasized the activities aim to "continue the unique spirit which Taiwan built in the past 60 years," but defined this "Taiwan spirit " as "Chinese culture with Taiwan characteristics" which he said was fostered during the past six decades.
Ma's location of the "Taiwan spirit" under the umbrella of "Chinese culture" and location of Taiwan's democracy as "within the Chinese community" are in line with his highly "ideological" claims that Taiwan and its 23 million people (along with the "Mainland Area" including the PRC and Mongolia) "belong to the ROC," that "the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the Chinese race-nation" and "are all children of the Yellow Emperor" and the revival of the KMT's state - financed Chiang personality cults.
In sum, the point of the ROC centenary commemoration activities is not to celebrate Taiwan's democratic miracle or to offer a platform that can "let 100 flowers bloom" and manifest the complex histories of both the ROC on the mainland and Taiwan and Taiwan's own history but to re-subordinate Taiwan's pluralistic history and culture under the KMT's unitary "great Chinese nationalism" and breathe "new life" into the KMT myth of unique legitimacy to rule Taiwan just in time for the 2012 elections.
Almost missed this one ...
Apparently, the Taiwanese delegation didn't get invited to a ministerial breakfast meeting of APEC leading Taiwan to lodge a protest to the Singapore Government, who in return "expressed its understanding of Taiwan's stance" (this is the diplomatic equivalent of saying 'whatever').
Taiwan is a full member of APEC but doesn't get treated like one because China throws a hissy fit to prevent that occuring. The killer passage in the news item though blows open Ma's modus vivendi for what it truly is .. a one way street of concessions from Taiwan with no PRC reciprocation:
Taiwan has never been represented at the informal APEC foreign ministers' biennial meetings, due to pressure from China. The situation has not changed despite the improvement in relations between Taiwan and China.
