Taiwan/China: Seeing Both Sides! Oy!
See Taipei Times for sympathetic coverage of the 3/26 march in Taiwan against the anti-secession law recently passed by the People's Assembly of the People's Republic of China.
Coverage of the March 26 March on CNN and BBC was blacked out in the PRC and dismissed by the government controlled press, the People's Daily as a money-wasting spectacle. The People's Daily focuses on the dissenters' or opposition party point of view in Taiwan -- the KMT sees the government as inflaming public emotion. Less partisan opponents of Taiwan's ruling party might say that the DPP, or Democratic Progressive Party as exploiting mass emotion ("love Taiwan"). But as the PRC uses Taiwanese dissent to bolster its own positions, it cracks down on its internal dissenters, giving us the impression that the Communists like the democratically guaranteed right to criticize one's own government everywhere else but HOME.
The official doctrine was "Peace and Democracy" and a sugary version of Bob Dylan's"Blowing in the Wind" was the official song, but the black and white banners that proclaimed "F**k China!" --( I'll blog pix I took very soon) were decidedly not so peaceful.
If Taiwan's ruling party, the DPP really cared about Taiwanese sovereignty, it might look a little more closely at the billions of dollars crossing the Straits. The increasing economic dependency of Taiwanese businessmen on their Mainland factories may decide the resolution of this conflict.
Coverage of the March 26 March on CNN and BBC was blacked out in the PRC and dismissed by the government controlled press, the People's Daily as a money-wasting spectacle. The People's Daily focuses on the dissenters' or opposition party point of view in Taiwan -- the KMT sees the government as inflaming public emotion. Less partisan opponents of Taiwan's ruling party might say that the DPP, or Democratic Progressive Party as exploiting mass emotion ("love Taiwan"). But as the PRC uses Taiwanese dissent to bolster its own positions, it cracks down on its internal dissenters, giving us the impression that the Communists like the democratically guaranteed right to criticize one's own government everywhere else but HOME.
The official doctrine was "Peace and Democracy" and a sugary version of Bob Dylan's"Blowing in the Wind" was the official song, but the black and white banners that proclaimed "F**k China!" --( I'll blog pix I took very soon) were decidedly not so peaceful.
If Taiwan's ruling party, the DPP really cared about Taiwanese sovereignty, it might look a little more closely at the billions of dollars crossing the Straits. The increasing economic dependency of Taiwanese businessmen on their Mainland factories may decide the resolution of this conflict.
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