Left Flank

Robert «The Only Redhead», both in the comments and his post, uses Taiwan and the direct flights issue as an example of a twist of thinking that annoys me to no end, the continuum with no middle.On one end, there's politics; on the other, there's the economy. To use Robert's example, there's the neocons and their nationalist obsessions, and there's the business wonks and their neoliberal fantasies. Never do the two ends meet, politics and economy. And, if they do, in Taiwan, as Michael Turton has doggedly argued, the media spins it back into the ends.

Right now, it seems that China has gotten everything it wants out of the deal, and Taiwan's gotten little, because the KMT isn't willing to stand up and make sure that Taiwan gets its cut.

I can't reiterate this enough. I'm not denying that the cross-strait flights are a good thing. While I certainly don't think they they'll be the economic boon that the KMT is claiming they will be, and I'm not alone, I have hope for moderate benefits, both financial and cultural. It's just a shame that KMT was so ready to back down, not daring to demand the PRC compromise.

There can be two Chinas, or a China and a Taiwan, if the Taiwanese people so choose. Both can be successful trading partners, too. Taiwan is not beholden to those who want to an easier way to make money, or the arms merchants.

Anyway, I really like this blog!

Taiwan bloggers are having fun with the issue of the restoration of direct flights between PRC and Taiwan, even as western media emphasize them as «a show of conciliation between the long-time rivals». Well, at least, there's direct flights to and from only two, of a possible eight, Taiwanese airports and five Chinese cities (Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai and Xiamen). According to FT, a funny thing happened on the way to Taiwan:

The pageantry was lower key at Pudong airport in Shanghai, home to China's largest Taiwanese community, where only an airline counter banner reading »Welcome to Shanghai Airlines' cross-Strait weekend charter flights» marked the departure of a morning flight filled with mostly Taiwanese returning home.

The flights were not without some controversy, as a group of about a dozen Tibet independence activists shouting »Welcome to free Taiwan» protested outside the airport over Beijing's recent crackdown in Tibetan regions of China.

Reporting on what the Taiwanese locals are really worried about, Michael Turton brings up «secondary sex characteristics»:

The Nantou county government, concerned that Chinese tourists may discover that Taiwanese girls have secondary sex characteristics, has ordered that the betel nut babes dress more demurely. I think the Nantou government is just trying to spare the feelings of the poor Chinese by preventing them from finding out that Taiwanese girls are hotter than Chinese girls.

Taiwanese are obsessed that this first small group of 867 privileged Chinese tourists, will still be hicks.

Government employees are working overtime to renovate the Japanese colonial airport in Taipei that will be servicing the visitors. Also, they're cleaning the toilets at tourist sites around the island.

Huh. Yeah, I've noticed they're a little skanky. Umm. So yeah, uhh, way to go putting your best face forward. I like this other quote from the article:

After half a century of separation, many Taiwanese have contradictory ideas about Chinese: They are eager to show off Taiwan's democracy, wealth, culture and sophistication, but some worry that the Chinese are backward, rude and may bring diseases to their homeland

AND «those Chinese» eat stinky tofu, spit on the streets, pee in the gutter, drive like maniacs, pollute their atmosphere, and they're probably after our women as well.

And, what's the big tourist draw? Chiang Kai-shek! Wasn't he the enemy?